Sociology as a Social Science
Sociology as social science has some characteristics that distinguish it from other sciences, notably those studying society like history and political sciences.
To gain a deeper understanding of sociology, we need to understand the natures of sociology first are, so here are some natures of sociology as a social science:
1. Social science means sociology doesn't study nature and not an exact science because sociology studies social phenomenons. Why not an exact science? Because the object is social interactions that have much probability from other factors that affect them. For example, the study about criminality, we cannot only study the criminal action because many others might have taken parts like educational and economic problems.
2. As a categorical science, sociology restricts only what is empirical happening, not what it should be. Sociology doesn't try to what should have happened in a society or predict what should be in the future society.
3. Sociology is a pure science or not applied science; sociology tries to enhance and strengthen the available concept and theory. Sociology doesn't try to use them as a tool to empower society to make a revolution but trying to gain a deeper understanding of society and use it for Government's policy purposes.
4. Sociology is an abstract science when compared to other sciences with concrete objects; sociology is quite abstract because it studies social interaction and its patterns, they might have real examples such as conflicts and social harmony, but they are just the examples of social interaction, the process remains abstract, and we need a deeper understanding of each concept and theory to understand them.
5. Sociology is empirical and rational; this emphasizes that we cannot only use our ratio to predict or just see social phenomena. More than that, we sometimes use our personal values to judge a phenomenon. Sociology understands human ratio is unreliable, probably our ratio judges as a way to go; still, it's not a definition. Let's say we might think someone who stole a smartphone because they have money, but the face told that they were forced by someone to commit the crime. This is the importance of social research where sociologist tries to understand and searching for the actual fact by empirical research.
6. Science with the general object, let's remind ourselves that sociology studies social interaction. Social interaction can involve many things and different kinds of social sciences. One of the characteristics of sociology as a social science is to study the generality of social symptoms. In some cases, sociology has specific branches that study each more specific social object like sociology of education and social psychology.
Image by StockSnap from Pixabay.
Post a Comment for "Sociology as a Social Science"