Sociology Definition and Meaning

Questions and Answers

Auguste Comte, Herbert Spencer, Emile Durkheim, and Max Weber

Society

Trends among and between large groups and societies

A group's shared practices, values, and beliefs Signup and view all the answers

The study of groups and group interactions, societies and social interactions Signup and view all the answers

Everything produced by a society, including all aspects of social life Signup and view all the answers

Sociology Signup and view all the answers

To study human society with emphasis on social aspect of human relationships Signup and view all the answers

C. Wright Mills Signup and view all the answers

To analyze social relationships Signup and view all the answers

Study Notes

For centuries, philosophers and thinkers have reflected on societies, with notable examples including Plato, Aristotle, Manu, and Confucius.

In the 19th century, scientific attempts were made by Auguste Comte, Herbert Spencer, Emile Durkheim, Max Weber, and others to establish Sociology as an academic discipline.

Sociology is the study of groups and group interactions, societies and social interactions, from small to large groups.

A society is a group of people who live in a defined geographic area, interact with one another, and share a common culture.

Sociologists study all aspects and levels of society, using micro-level analysis to study small groups and individual interactions, and macro-level analysis to examine trends among and between large groups and societies.

Culture refers to a group's shared practices, values, and beliefs, encompassing a group's way of life and all social rules.

The sociological imagination is an awareness of the relationship between a person's behavior and experience and the wider culture that shaped the person's choices and perceptions.

Sociology is a young discipline in social science, recognized for its importance and practical usefulness today.

Auguste Comte, a French philosopher, is regarded as the Father of Sociology, coining the term in 1839.

Auguste Comte: "Sociology is the science of social phenomena subject to natural and invariable laws."
Alex Inkeles: "Sociology is the study of systems of social action and of their inter relations."
L.F.Ward: "Sociology is the science of society or of social phenomena."
Max Weber: "Sociology is the science which attempts the interpretive understanding of social action."
Giddings: "Sociology is an attempt to account for the origin, growth, structure and activities of society by the operation of physical causes working together in the process of evolution."
M.Ginsberg: "Sociology is the science that deals with social groups; their internal forms or modes of organization, the processes that tend to maintain or change these forms of organization and relations between groups."