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WHAT IS SOCIOLOGY
Before making an attempt to define what sociology is, allow us to look at what the favored conceptions of the discipline appear. As could also be the case with alternative sciences, sociology is usually misconceived among the populace. Although several could justly and grossly surmise that sociology is concerning individuals, some assume that it’s all about it. WHAT IS SOCIOLOGY
“helping the unfortunate and doing welfare work, while others think that sociology is the same as socialism and is a means of bringing revolution to our schools and colleges” (Nobbs, Hine and Flemming, 1978:1).
The first scientist to use the term sociology was a European the name of auguste comte who lived from 1798-to 1857. As coined by Comte, the term sociology is a combination of 2 words. the primary part of the term may be a Latin, socius- which will diversely mean society, association, closeness, or friendship. The opposite word, logos, is of Greek origin. It virtually suggests that to talk about or word. However, the term is usually understood as a study or science (Indrani, 1998). Thus, the etymological, literal definition of sociology is that it’s the word or speaking concerning society. An easy definition here is that it’s the study of Society and Culture. WHAT IS SOCIOLOGY
A simple definition of sociology
Sociology is the study of society
Although the term “sociology” was initially utilized by the French social philosopher august Comte, the discipline was additional firmly established by such theorists as Emile Durkheim, Karl Marx and Max Weber (Nobbs, Hine, and Flemming, 1978). WHAT IS SOCIOLOGY
society and culture
Before going any more, allow us to note that the ideas “society and “culture” are central in sociology. Whereas every conception shall be proscribed later in some detail, it seems to be acceptable here to assist students to differentiate between these 2 necessary ideas. Society typically refers to the social world with all its structures, institutions, organizations, etc. around us, and specifically to a bunch of individuals who live inside some variety of delimited territory and who share a typical approach to life. This common approach to life shared by a bunch of individuals is termed culture (Stockard, 1997). WHAT IS SOCIOLOGY
Distinguishing between society and culture
Society: a group of people who live within some type of bounded territory and who share a common way of life
Culture: is a common way of life shared by a society or a group.
Now, turning to the definitional problems, it’s necessary that additionally to the present etymological definition of the term, we want to own alternative substantive definitions. Thus, sociology could also be typically outlined as a social science that studies such forms of phenomena as:
The structure and function of society as a system;
The nature, complexity, and contents of human social behavior;
The fundamentals of human social life;
Interaction of human beings with their external environment;
The indispensability of social interactions for human development;
How the social world affects us, etc.
Formal Definition
An additional formal definition of sociology may be that it’s a social science that studies the processes and patterns of human individual and cluster interaction, the sorts of organization of social teams, the link among them, and cluster influences on individual behavior, and contrariwise, and therefore the interaction between one group and therefore the alternative (Team of specialists, 2000).
Sociology is the scientific study of society, that is curious about the study of the social relationship between individuals in a very cluster context. sociology is curious about how we tend to as human beings interact with one another (the pattern of social interaction); the laws and principles that govern social relations and interactions; the /influence of the social world on the people, and contrariwise (Ibid.). It deals with a factually observable material, depends upon empirical research, and involves trying to formulate theories and generalizations which will be of facts (Giddens, 1982).
Regarding the detective and instructive nature the science, Soroka (1992:34) states that “Sociology may be a repudiation science; that’s, it’s for levels of reality apart from those conferred in official interpretations of society and people’s wisdom explanations of the social world. Sociologists have an interest in understanding what’s and don’t create worth judgments.”
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This post contains the content of the book Introduction to Sociology below is the link of the complete book lntroduction to sociology_final