Sociology As A Science-Scope of Sociology

Sociology as a Science:-

A science is a body of knowledge getting after the use of systematic methods of investigation, theoretical thinking, experiments and the logic assessment of arguments.

If science is defined as knowledge which is reliable (trustworthy, objective) and authentic (accurate) then sociology is a science that follow the systematic method.

There are two source of science “empirical” and “rational”.

Empirical:-

Empirical is a study which can be verified or confirm through five senses.

Rational:-

Based On logic reason cause affects.

Sociology is science as their result are relable and authentic. But if science is defined as the testing of hypothesis by positivistic methodology than sociology can hardly claim to be a science

Scope of Sociology

Scope means the subject matter or the areas of study. Every science has its own field of inquiry. It becomes difficult to study a science systematically unless its boundary or scope is determined precisely. Sociology as a social science has its own scope or boundaries. But there is no one opinion about the scope of Sociology. However, there are two main schools of thought regarding the scope of Sociology:

(1) The Specialist or Formalistic school 

(2) the Synthetic school.

The supporters of this school of thought are George Simmel, Vierkandt, Max Weber, Vonwise, and F. Tonnies. The main views of the school regarding the scope of Sociology are

The Specialist or Formalistic school

(i)                Sociology is a specific, pure and independent social science.

(ii)              Sociology studies the various forms of social relationships.

(iii)            Scope of Sociology is very narrow and limited.

(iv)            Sociology deals with specific form of human relationship.

(v)              Sociology need not study all the events connected with social science.

The Synthetic school:-

According to this school-

(i)                Sociology is a general and systematic social science.

(ii)              Scope of Sociology is very vast.

(iii)            Sociology needs help from other social sciences.

(iv)            It is a synthesis of social science.

(v)              Sociology is closely related with other social sciences.

As a field of study, sociology has extremely broad scope. The major goal of sociology is to identify underlying, recurring patterns of and influences on social behavior. It Means sociology provides a thorough examination of the root cause of these problems for this we used Analysis.

There are 4 Stages of Analysis:-

·        Factual Questions

·        Comparative Question

·        Developmental Questions

·        Theoretical Questions

Factual Questions:-

Being Members of society, we all already have a certain amount of factual knowledge about it.So Factual Analysis is the simplest way of collecting data by asking simple (How) & (what) Questions.

For example:

How many children died in Sindh.

 Disadvantage:

In This Analysis stage we know problem only in specific area or country/city.

Comparative Question:-

If we want to Analysis more about other cities/countries and want to compare them. We used this Stage of Analysis.

Example:

How many children died in Punjab as compared to Sindh. (so in this example we are comparing 2 different provinces of Pakistan) and it is more stable result as compared to factual analysis because we know more about results.

Developmental Questions:-

In this stage of analysis we can get the results from past and compare them with present data . for this we use this stage of analysis.

Example:

How many children died in past five years in Sindh. (in this example know we can get more detailed about results by comparing past & presents data )

Theoretical Questions:-

Sociology does not only collect facts but also wants to know why things happens. To do so Theoretical Stage of analysis is used . It deals with (Why) Questions.

Example:

Why more children are died in Sindh as compared to Punjab.(in this example we consider Sindh has more died ratio as compared to Punjab know we want to know the reason behind it why it is happing so for this we use theoretical analysis stage.