Nature of Sociology
The nature of sociology refers to the fundamental characteristics and essence of the discipline. Sociology is the scientific study of human society, social relationships, and the patterns of social behaviour that emerge within them. It examines how individuals are influenced by social structures, cultural norms and societal institutions and how they, in turn, shape and affect society. Let’s look at Robert Bierstedh’s “The Social Order” to grasp the nature of sociology. Here are some key aspects that define the nature of sociology:
Sociology is a social science and not a natural science: Sociology is a field of study that belongs to the social sciences rather than the natural sciences. However, it is important to note that this distinction lies in the content of the sciences rather than their methodology. This differentiation helps us separate the sciences that study the physical world, such as astronomy, physics, chemistry, geology, biology, and their respective subfields, from sociology, which focuses on understanding the social aspects of our universe.
Sociology is a categorical, not a normative: Sociology is a categorical, not a normative, it confines itself to statements about what is, not what should be or ought to be. As a science, sociology is necessarily silent about questions of value; it cannot decide the directions in which society ought to go, and it makes no recommendations on matters of social policy. Sociology can and does, in a categorical fashion, state that at a certain time and in a certain place a particular group of people adhered to certain values, but it cannot, in normative fashion, decide whether these people ought to have held these values in preference to others.
Sociology is a pure science, not an applied science: Sociology, as a pure science, is engaged in the acquisition of knowledge that will be useful to the administrator, the legislator, the diplomat, the teacher, the foreman, the supervisor, the social worker, and the citizen. Sociology is clearly and definitely concerned with acquiring knowledge about society that can be used to solve some of the world’s problems, but it is not itself an applied science.
Sociology is an abstract science and not a concrete one: Sociology is not interested in the concrete manifestations of human events but rather in their form and the patterns they assume. Sociology is concerned with the observation that various societies, despite their diverse origins, beliefs, attitudes, and customs, share common structural characteristics regardless of their geographical location.
Sociology is a generalizing and not a particularizing or individualizing science: Sociology aims to discover universal laws or principles concerning human interaction and social organization. Unlike history, which focuses on detailed descriptions of specific societies or events, sociology is concerned with understanding the nature, form, content, and structure of human groups and societies in a more general sense.
Sociology is both a rational and an empirical science: Since this is a methodological issue, we shall ignore it here and consider it instead in the next section, which is devoted to the method of sociology.
Sociology is a general science and not a special social science: Social relationships and interactions between individuals are present in all aspects of human life, including economic, political, religious, recreational, legal, and intellectual domains. There is no distinct category of the “social” that is separate from these various spheres, except for those relationships characterized as “polite acquaintance,” which are commonly referred to as social in a narrower context. In other words, sociology studies those phenomena that are common to all human interaction.
Sociology is thus a social, categorical, pure, abstract, generalizing, both a rational and an empirical and general science.
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