The scope refers to the subject matter or area of the study or field of inquiry. It has to have boundary to study it systematically. As a social science, sociology has its own scope but there is no one opinion about it. Sociology studies human society which is marked by tremendous diversity. This diversity is also reflected in the viewpoints of sociologists about society and even about subject matter or scope of sociology. V.F. Calberton remarked -
Since sociology is so elastic science, it is difficult to determine just where its boundaries begin and end, where sociology becomes social psychology and where social psychology becomes sociology, or where economic theory becomes sociological doctrine or biological theory becomes sociological theory something, which is impossible to decide.
Broadly, there are two schools of thought about scope of sociology. These are -
Specialiatic or Formal School of Thought
Formal school argued in favor of giving sociology a definite subject matter to make it a distinct discipline and its scope as pure and independent. According to George Simmel, sociology is a specific social science which describes, classifies, analyses and delineates the forms of social relationships or in other words social interactions should be classified into various forms or types and analysed. It argues that sociology should confine itself to the discovery of the fundamental force of change and persistence and should abstain from a historical study of concrete societies. Max Weber also makes out a definite field for sociology. According to him the aim of sociology is to interpret or understand social behaviour. But social behavior does not cover the whole field of human relations. Indeed not all human interactions are social. Sociology is concerned with the analysis and classification of types of social relationships. The advocates of the formal or specialistic school of thought are George Simmel, Max Weber, Vier Kandt, Von Wiese, Ferdinand Tonnies etc.
Criticism of formal School
Formal school has been criticized on the issue that it has emphasized on merely abstract forms and neglected the concrete contents of social life. Abstract forms separated from concrete relations cannot be studied. Ginsberg says that a study of social relationships would remain barren if it is conducted in the abstract without the full knowledge of the terms to which in concrete life they relate. Sociology doesn't alone study the forms of social relationship. Political science, International law also studies forms of social relationship. The conception of pure sociology is not practical as no social science can be studied in isolation from other social sciences. Formalistic school has extremely narrowed the scope of sociology.
School Two - Synthetic School of Thought
As against the specialistic school the synthetic school wants to make sociology a synthesis of the social sciences or a general science. Sociology is the science of sciences and all the sciences are included in its scope, it synthesizes all of them. According to the synthetic school, the scope of sociology is encyclopedic and synoptic. The viewpoint, which are reflected in geographical, biological and economic determinism, these sociologists have advised to make sociology comprehensive and wide. According to this school sociology seeks to see life full and see it whole. The supported of this school are Emile Durkheim, Morrico Ginsberg, Reuter and Hart, Hob House, Pitirim Sorokin etc.
Conclusion
Thus on the basis of viewpoints of different sociologists we can get a general outline of the scope of sociology. Firstly the analysis of various institutions, associations and social groups which are results of social relationships of individuals should be the concern of sociology. Secondly the links among different parts of society should be studied. This objective is dealt with justice by functionalist school of sociology and Marxist school also gives importance to this viewpoint. Thus social structure should be given adequate importance in subject matter of sociology. Thirdly sociology addresses itself to the factors which contribute to social stability and social change. Fourthly sociology should also explain the trend of the changing pattern and the aftermath of the changes in the society.
Reference:
Entire article is copied from these two sources -
Reference:
Entire article is copied from these two sources -
No comments:
Post a Comment