Concept
Sociology
Overview
Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociology was coined in the late 18th century to describe the scientific study of society. As a social science, sociology uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about social order and social change. Sociological subject matter ranges from micro-level analyses of individual interaction and agency to macro-level analyses of social systems and social structure. Applied sociological research may be directed toward social policy and welfare, whereas theoretical approaches may focus on understanding social processes and the phenomenological method.
Traditional focuses of sociology include social stratification, social class, social mobility, religion, secularization, law, sexuality, gender, race, social norms, and deviance. Recent studies have added socio-technical aspects of the digital divide as a new focus. Digital sociology examines the impact of digital technologies on social behavior and institutions, encompassing professional, analytical, critical, and public dimensions. The internet has reshaped social networks and power relations, illustrating the growing importance of digital sociology. As all spheres of human activity are affected by the interplay between social structure and individual agency, sociology has gradually expanded its focus to other subjects and institutions, such as health and the institution of medicine; economy; military; punishment and systems of control; the Internet; sociology of education; social capital; and the role of social activity in the development of scientific knowledge.
The range of social scientific methods has also expanded, as social researchers draw upon a variety of qualitative and quantitative techniques. The linguistic and cultural turns of the mid-20th century, in particular, have led to increasingly interpretative, hermeneutic, and philosophical approaches to the analysis of society. Conversely, the turn of the 21st century has seen the rise of new analytically, mathematically, and computationally rigorous techniques, such as agent-based modelling and social network analysis.
Social research influences various industries and sectors of life, such as among politicians, policy makers, and legislators; educators; planners; administrators; developers; business magnates and managers; social workers; non-governmental organizations; and non-profit organizations, as well as individuals interested in resolving social issues in general.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
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And the key is to be found only in Science. In the absence of the generalisations of biology and psychology, rational interpretation of social phenomena is impossible. Only in proportion as men draw certain rude, empirical inferences respecting human nature, are they enabled to understand even the simplest facts of social life: as, for instance, the relation between supply and demand. And if the most elementary…
Herbert Spencer, Essays on education and kindred subjects
States what Sociology is; the author is tied to Sociology in the knowledge graph.
VII. GENERAL ANALYSIS.—As at present published, with several explanations and additions. VIII. COROLLARIES.—Consisting in part of a number of derivative principles which form a necessary introduction to Sociology.[3] PART I. THE DATA OF SOCIOLOGY.—A statement of the several sets of factors entering into social phenomena—human ideas and feelings considered in their necessary order of evolution; surrounding natural…
Herbert Spencer, First Principles
Names Sociology several times; the author is tied to Sociology in the knowledge graph.
GENERAL: Grosse, _Die Formen der Familie und die Formen der Wirthschaft_, 1896; Starke, _The Primitive Family_, 1889; Maine, _Ancient Law_, 1885; McLennan, _Studies in Ancient History_, 1886; Rivers, _On the Origin of the Classificatory System of Relationships_, in Anthropological Essays, presented to E. B. Tylor, 1907; Ratzel, _History of Mankind_, 1896-98; Kovalevsky, _Tableau des origines et de l'Evolution de la…
John Dewey, Ethics
The author is tied to Sociology in the knowledge graph; names Sociology twice.
Philosophers who discussed Sociology
- Georg Simmel
- Pierre Bourdieu
- Ferdinand de Saussure
- Ernst Troeltsch
- Auguste Comte
- Karl Marx
- Roland Barthes
- Karl Mannheim
- Al-Farabi
- Adam Ferguson
- Eric Voegelin
- Max Weber
- Claude Lévi-Strauss
- Intellectual
- Martin Buber
- Jean Baudrillard
- Jean-François Lyotard
- Søren Kierkegaard
- Theodor W. Adorno
- Ferdinand Tönnies
- Raymond Aron
- Umberto Eco
- George Herbert Mead
- György Lukács
Related ideas
- Empiricism
- Feminist theory
- Globe Pequot Publishing Group
- Muqaddimah
- Charlotte Perkins Gilman
- Georg Simmel
- Pierre Bourdieu
- Social system
- Ferdinand de Saussure
- Frederick Copleston
- French Revolution
- Artificial intelligence
- Neo-Kantianism
- Greek language
- Genetics
- Princeton University Press
- Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
- Auguste Comte
- Philosophy
- Herbert A. Simon
- Power (social and political)
- Industrial Revolution
- Human sexuality
- Verstehen
Opposing perspectives
- Authority
- Civil religion
- Psychology
- Philosophy of religion
- Political science
- Social science
- Structural functionalism
- Secularization
- Social research
- Suicide (Durkheim book)
- Peter L. Berger
- Anomie
- Literary theory
- Cultural anthropology
- Catholic Church
- Monograph
- Economics
- Ibn Khaldun
- On the Genealogy of Morality
- Organized religion
- Humanities
- Ethics
- Social fact
- Hybrid word
Place in the tradition
Part of Action theory (philosophy).