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HIDAYATULLAH NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY

RAIPUR, CHHATTISGARH

Sociology Project

DEBATING THE SCOPE OF SOCIOLOGY

Submitted by;

Submitted to;

Adyashree Khuntia

Mr. Uttam Kumar Panda,

Sem-1, Sec- C, Roll no-13

Faculty, Sociology,
H.N.LU. Raipur

DECLARATION
I hereby declare that this research work titled Debating the scope of sociology is my own work
and represents my own ideas, and where others ideas or words have been included, I have
adequately cited and referenced the original sources. I also declare that I have adhered to all
principles of academic honesty and integrity and have not misrepresented or fabricated or
falsified any idea/data/fact/source in my submission.
Adyashree Khuntia
Sem-1, Sec-C, Roll No-13
BA LLB HONS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I feel highly elated to work on the topic Debating the scope of sociology. The practical
realization of this project has obligated the assistance of many persons. I express my deepest
regard and gratitude for Dr. Uttam Kumar Panda. His consistent supervision, constant inspiration
and invaluable guidance have been of immense help in understanding and carrying out the
nuances of the project report. I would like to thank my family and friends without whose support
and encouragement, this project would not have been a reality. I take this opportunity to also
thank the University and the Vice Chancellor for providing extensive database resources in the
Library and through Internet. I would be grateful to receive comments and suggestions to further
improve this project report.

CONTENTS

METHODS AND OBJECTIVES

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

INTRODUCTION

WHAT IS SOCIOLOGY

SCOPE OF SOCIOLOGY
SCHOOLS OF SOCIOLOGY
FORMAL SCHOOL
SYNTHETIC SCHOOL
CONCLUSION

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The Research conducted is Descriptive and Analytical in nature. Books & other references
(including various websites) as guided by faculty of Sociology were primarily helpful for the
completion of this project. Footnotes have been provided wherever necessary.

OBJECTIVES
1) To understand what is sociology
2) To understand the views of different schools of sociology

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

INTRODUCTION

WHAT IS SOCIOLOGY
Sociology is the youngest of all the Social Sciences. The word Sociology is derived from the
Latin word societies meaning society and the Greek word logos are meaning study or
science. The etymological meaning of sociology is thus the science of society. The term
Sociology was coined by Auguste Comte, a French philosopher, in 1839. The teaching of
sociology as a separate discipline started in 1876 in the United States, in 1889 in France, in 1907
in Great Britain, after World War I in Poland and India, in 1925 in Egypt and Mexico, and in
1947 in Sweden.

SCOPE OF SOCIOLOGY
Since Sociology is so elastic a 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.
-V.F CARBATON
Sociology has broad and wide scope. It is maintained by some that Sociology studies everything
and anything under the sun. This is rather too vague a view about the scope of Sociology. As a
matter of fact, Sociology has a limited field of enquiry and deals with those problems which are
not dealt with by other social sciences.
In the broadest sense, Sociology is the study of human interactions and inter-relations, their
conditions and consequences. Thus ideally Sociology has for its field the whole life of man in
society, all the activities whereby men maintained themselves in the struggle for existence, the
rules and regulations which define their relations to each other, the systems of knowledge and
belief, art and morals and any other capacities and habits acquired and developed in the course of
their activities as members of society.

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DIFFERENT SCHOOLS OF SOCIOLOGY

There are two schools of thought with different viewpoints regarding scope and subject matter of
sociology- formal school and synthetic school.
1) FORMAL SCHOOL
According to formal school sociology was conceived to be a social science with a specifically
defined field. Formal school argued in favour of giving sociology a definite subject matter to make it a
distinct discipline. It emphasized upon the study of forms of social relationships and regarded sociology
as independent. This school had George Simmel, Ferdinand Tonnies, Alfred Vierkandt and

Leopord Von Wiese as its main advocates.

2) SYNTHETIC SCHOOL
Synthetic school wanted sociology to be synthesis of the social sciences and thus wanted to
widen the scope of sociology. The synthetic school with Durkheim, Hobhouse and Sorokin
advocated a synthesis in form of coordination among all social sciences. It wanted to make
sociology a general science and not a pure or special social science. This school of thought
defered from the formalistic school of thought. Here the scope of sociology was not to be
repeated within the study of social relationship or analysis and classification of social
relationship.

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The Formalistic or Specialist School of Thought

This school of thought is headed by German Sociologist George Simmel. The other main
supporters of this school of thought are Alfred Vierkandt, Leopold Vonwiese, Max-Weber Albion
Small and Ferdinand Tonnies.
According to them Sociology cannot study social life as a whole. Hence the scope of Sociology
is very limited. According to this School of thought the scope of Sociology consists of forms of
social relationships. These Sociologists want to keep the scope of Sociology distinct from other
social sciences. These schools of thought consider sociology as a pure and independent science.
However the views of the supporters of this school of thought are as follows:

(i) George Simmel:

Simmel agree with the formalistic view that Sociology is a pure and independent science.
According to him Sociology is a specific social science which should describes, classifies,
analyses and delineates the forms of social relationships, the process of socialization and social
organization. Sociology should confine itself in studying formal behaviour instead of studying
actual behaviour.
Simmel makes a distinction between the forms of social relationships and their contents and
opines that sociology should confine itself in explaining different forms of social relationships
and study them in abstraction whereas their contents are dealt with by other social sciences.
Hence Sociology is the science of the forms of social relationship. Because it comprehends the
forms of social relationships and activities, not the relationships themselves. Co-operation,
competition, subordination, division of labour etc. are different forms of social relationships or
behaviour. Thus, according to Simmel the scope of Sociology is very limited.

(ii) Alfred Vierkandt:

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Another leading advocate of formalistic school Vierkandt opines that Sociology is a special
branch of knowledge which deals with the ultimate forms of mental or psychic relationships
which link men to one another in society. These mental relationships consist in love, hate, cooperation etc. which shape particular types of social relationships. He further maintains that
Sociology can be a definite science only when it abstains from a historic study of concrete
societies. Sociology should not study concrete societies in detail like history. It should study the
irreducible categories of science which are nothing but ultimate forms of social or mental
psychic relationships.
Thus in Vierkandts opinion the scope of sociology is very limited as it deals with the
ultimate forms of mental or psychic relationships.

(iii) Leopold Vonwiese:

Another advocate of formalistic school Vonwiese opines that the scope of Sociology is very
limited because it only studies the forms of social relationships and forms of social processes.He
has divided these social relationships and social processes into many types. According to
Vonwiese there are two social processes in society such as associative and dissociative social
process. Co-operation, accommodation, assimilation etc. are example of associative process.
Whereas competition and conflict are example of dissociative process. Accordingly he have
identified more than 650 forms of human relationships.

(iv)Max-weber:
Max Weber an eminent German sociologist expresses his own view-point on the scope of
sociology. He says that the scope of sociology consists in interpreting or understanding social
behaviour. For him social behaviour does not refer to entire field of human relation.He means by
social behaviour what we call social activity or social action. It is related to the behaviour of
others and is determined by them.For instance, a bicycle accident is merely a natural
phenomenon, the way in which the bicyclists behave with each other after the accident in the
form of avoiding or using the language reflects their true social behaviour. Sociology is thus
concerned with fundamental types of social behaviour.In other words, sociology should aim at
analysing and classifying the various types of social behaviour or social relationships.

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(v) Albion Small:

Another advocate of formalistic school small opines that the scope of sociology is very limited
because it does not study all the activities of society. It only confines itself in studying the
genetic forms of social relationships, behaviour and activities.

(vi) Ferdinand Tonnies:

Tonnies strongly support the formalistic school of thought and opine that Sociology is a pure and
independent science. On the basis of forms of social relationships Tonnies differentiated between
Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft i.e. society and community and opines that the main aim of
sociology is to study the different forms of social relationship that comes under these two
categories.
He interpreted social processes quantitatively and gave a mathematical formula. According to
him:
P=Ax S
P = Social Processes
A = Attitude
S = Situation
Attitude is made up of
A = N x E (N = Basic social nature (E = Previous experience)
S = B x A (B = Geographical conditions) = (A = attitude of the participants)

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Thus we conclude that according to this school of thought sociology studies a particular aspect of
social relationships in their abstract nature and not in any concrete situation.

CRITICISM OF FORMALISTIC SCHOOL OF SOCIOLOGY

Attempts have been made by sociologists to define the scope of sociology. These attempts are
really praise worthy. All the same the formalistic school is subject to criticism on the following
grounds.
(i) The formalistic school has extremely narrowed down the scope of sociology. It states that
sociology should study the forms of social relationships. In fact sociology should study not only
the forms but also the contents of social life.
(ii) Abstract forms cannot be studied in isolation forms of concrete relations. They should be
studied together but the formalistic school makes a distinction between the abstract forms and
concrete contents. It states that sociology should not go beyond the study of abstract forms.It
should always be bore in mind that abstract forms and concrete relations must be studied
together. In reality, social forms cannot be isolated at all from the content, because social forms
keep on changing like the contents. No social form can exist independent of content.P. Sorokin
says that it is impossible to think of a social institution whose form remains unchanged when its
content has already changed. In other words he emphasised on the points that the forms and the
contents change at the same time.We cannot say anything without knowing their concrete
contents. For instance the study of competition will be of little profit, if competition is not
thoroughly examined in concrete form in relation to economic life.
(iii) The conception of sociology as a pure and independent social science is to say the least
not practicable at all. No sociologist has so far succeeded in contracting sociology as a pure and
independent social science.It is not difficult to see that no social science is completely
independent of other social sciences. All social sciences are interdependent and inter-related.
Therefore, the conception of pure and independent sociology is not practicable.
(iv)Sociology alone does not study social relationship:

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Sociology is not the only science which studies social relationships. Political Science, Economics
and International Law also study social relationships.Thus the formalistic school has extremely
narrowed an confined the fields of sociology.

SYNTHETIC SCHOOL OF SOCIOLOGY

Synthetic school wanted sociology to be synthesis of the social sciences and thus wanted to
widen the scope of sociology. Sociology is the science of science. It embraces all social sciences
within its scope.In other words, it synthesizes them all.
Hobhouse perceived sociology as a science which has the whole social life of man as its sphere.
Its relations with the other social sciences are considered to be one of mutual exchange and
mutual stimulation. Karl Mannheim's divides sociology into two main sections-systematic and
general sociology and historical sociology. Systematic sociology describes one by one the main
factors of living together as far as they may be found in every kind of society. The historical
sociology deals with the historical variety and actuality of the general forms of society. It falls
into two sections-comparative sociology and social dynamics. Comparative sociology deals
mainly with the historical variations of the same phenomenon and tries to find by comparison
general features as separated from industrial features. Social dynamics deals with the
interrelations between the various social factors and institutions in a certain given society for
example in a primitive society. Ginsberg has summed up the chief functions of sociology as it
seeks to provide a classification of types and forms of social relationships especially of those
which have come to be defined institutions and associations. It tries to determine the relation
between different parts of factors of social life for example the economic and political, the moral
and the legal, the intellectual and the social elements. It endeavors to disentangle the
fundamental conditions of social change and persistence and to discover sociological principles
governing social life.
The synthetic school of thought holds the view that sociology is a synthesis of all social sciences.
Given below are the views of some of the exponents of this school:

(i) Emile Durkheims view:

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Emile Durkheim, an eminent French sociologist divides sociology into three principal parts,
namely social morphology, social physiology and general sociology.
A)Social morphology has direct reference,to all those objects which are basically or
fundamentally geographical or territorial in nature.
These objects are of many kinds such as the problems of population, its size, density and local
distribution and the like. Social morphology not only analyses the size and quality of population
but also examines how population affects the quality of social relationship and social groups.
B)It also studies the main forms of social groups, institutions and- their classifications. Social
physiology is very complex and it covers all subjects studied by particular social sciences like
religion, economy, language, morals, laws, etc.
It is seen that social sciences like physiology has a number of branches such as sociology of
religion, sociology of economic life, sociology of language, sociology of morals and sociology of
law. All these branches are regarded as special sociologies.
C)These sociologists to have subject of their own for example, the sociology of religion studies
language and so on and so forth. It should not be forgotten that each branch of social physiology
is related to a set of social facts which is nothing but activities of social groups.
Emile Durkheim is of opinion that general sociology is the philosophical part of sociology. The
function of general sociology is to discover the general character of these social facts. It should
discover general, social law of which the different law established by the special social sciences
are particular expressions.

(ii)Hobhouses view:
"Sociology is the synthesis of various social sciences"
Hob-house also holds a view similar to that of Durkheim regarding the functions of Sociology.
Ideally, for him Sociology is a synthesis of numerous social studies but the immediate task of the
sociologist is threefold. Firstly, as a sociologist, he must pursue his studies in his particular part

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of the social field. But secondly, bearing in mind the interconnections of social relations he
should try to interconnect the results arrived at by the different social sciences and, thirdly, he
should interpret social life as a whole.

(iii)P. Sorokins view:

P.Sorokin has also expressed his view on the subject-matter of sociology. According to him,
sociology should aim at studying the relationship that exists between the different aspects of
social phenomena and between the social and non-social phenomenas. It should study the general
features of social phenomena as well. "Sociology is the generalizing science". He is the
profounder of systematic study. In his book 'contemporary sociology' he observes that social is a
general science. It studies the general characteristics of the society of the relationship of social
and non-social phenomena. He constructs a formula to describe his theory.
Sociology - a, b, c
Economics - a, b, c, d, e, f
Political Science - a, b,c,g,h,i
Religion - a, b, c, L, M, N
Constitutional - a, b, c, n, y, Z
A, b, c, are found in all social sciences.

(iv)Karl Mannheims view:

Karl Mannheim divides Sociology into two main sections:
(i) Systematic and General Sociology (ii) Historical Sociology. Systematic and General
Sociology describes one by one the main factors of living together as far as they may be found in
every kind of society.

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The historical sociology deals with the historical variety and actuality of the general forms of
society. Historical Sociology falls into two main sections: firstly comparative sociology and
secondly, social dynamics.
Comparative Sociology deals mainly with the historical variations of the same phenomenon and
tries to find by comparison general features as separated from industrial features. Social
dynamics deals with the interrelations between the various social factors and institutions in a
certain given society, for instance, in a primitive society.
(v)Ginsbergs view:
Ginsberg has summed up the chief functions of sociology as follows.
Firstly, Sociology seeks to provide a classification of types and forms of social relationships
especially of those which have come to be defined institutions and associations.
Secondly, it tries to determine the relation between different parts of factors of social life, for
example, the economic and political, the moral and the religious, the moral and the legal, the
intellectual and the social elements.
Thirdly, it endeavours to disentangle the fundamental conditions of social change and persistence
and to discover sociological principles governing social life.

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CONCLUSION
Thus, the scope of Sociology is very wide. It is a general science but it is also a special science.
But 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.