Malavika G NairAIR 45 · CSE 2024 · 196 wordsTheir whole copy
Opening
Comte called sociology as the Queen of social sciences. Comte viewed Sociology as a 'synthetic school' which sought to subsume and explain all other sciences.
Why sociology is the last of sciences
Body · points
- Evolutionist View of Comte:
Same view was echoed by Spencer i.e Society is super organic and last to evolve → so will the science of society.
Positivism was used by St. simmon and Comte to explain the complex of all phenomena- social phenomena.
Sociology considered as a 'generalizing' science by Sorokin.
Scope of sociology is all encompassing
Eg) Durkheim viewed Economic theories of Social Division of Labour by Adam smith, too simplistic and incomplete without social implications.
Subject matter of sociology is very wide. Eg) Parson's theory which sought to explain entire social reality.
Sociology uses both positivistic methods like natural sciences eg) scientific method (Karl Popper) as well as subjective meanings (Weber).
Close · a summary
Counterviews : Merton says sociologist should aim for middle range theories and grand theories of Parsons is trying to be Einstein when there is no 'Kepler' in social sciences.
Sociology though wide in scope now has diversified today with multiple subdisciplines and is still evolving.