Sociology- The Discipline

Answer : The word "ideology" was first used by the French cavalry leader and philosopher Destutt de Tracy (1755-1836) by which he intended a science of ideas, their truth or errors. In Marxism, "ideology" is the term given to any form of thought which has been included by the vested interest of ruling class or aspiring intention of subordinate classes. Karl Mannheim, in his ‘Ideology and Utopia’ has pointed out that ideology is all thought distorted by the desire to conserve the present social order. It is the manifestation of vested interest or the programme of action. The ideology of the contemporary social thinkers; August Comte, Herbert Spencer, Emile Durkheim, Karl Marx, Max Weber etc. played very significant roles in the emergence of Sociology as the modern scientific discipline.

August Comte, the founding father of Sociology stressed the adoption of scientific method of analysing society so that we might improve society through understanding of it. His famous phrase "To know, to predict, to control" is ideological and scientific in nature. This early emphasises on the scientific analysis of social life was to have considerable implication for the subsequent development of the discipline. Emile Durkheim in France, Karl Marx and Max Weber in Germany enriched sociological thinking with their scientific and rational-logical ideology. Herbert Spencer's "Organic analogy" made Sociology more scientific. The scientific and ideological views of all these thinkers were the consequences of philosophy of Enlightenment, the French Revolution (1789) and the Industrial Revolution of the mid-eighteenth century Europe.

Answer : Sociology can be defined as the study of societies and their development in terms of their political decisions, ethics, economic development, religion and laws.

The three major factors which influenced the emergence of sociology as a sphere of study began in the late eighteenth century with the French Revolution, the period known as ‘the Enlightenment’ and the Industrial Revolution.

The Enlightenment was a significant contributing factor to the emergence of sociology in the late 18th and early 19th century. The Enlightenment is considered to be the source of critical ideas, such as the centrality of freedom, democracy, and reason as primary values of society. It was the “creation of a new framework of ideas about man, society and nature, which challenged existing conceptions rooted in a traditional world-view, dominated by Christianity”. The Enlightenmentperiod coincided with the increase in knowledge inother scientific fields such as life sciences like Darwin’s theories of evolution which challenged old established ideas of the church. The Enlightenment was an intellectual movement consisting of many philosophers like Charles Montesquieu, Jacques Tugot and Jean Condorcet.

The Enlightenment was in many respects a renaissance of scientific thought and signalled the beginning of sociology as a discipline. It changed the way philosophers looked at the world by giving a scientific and analytical approach to their theories.

Answer : Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism is a study of the relationship between the ethics of ascetic Protestantism and the emergence of the spirit of modern capitalism. Weber argues that the religious ideas of groups such as the Calvinists played a role in creating the capitalistic spirit which sees profit as an end in itself, and pursuing profit as virtuous. Calvinists believe in theory of predestination- that God has already determined who is saved (or election) and damned.

As Calvinism developed, a deep psychological need for clues about whether one was actually saved arose, and Calvinists looked to their success in worldly activity for those clues. Thus, they came to value profit and material success as signs of God’s favor.

Protestant ethic - in sociological theory - the value attached to hard work, thrift, and efficiency in one’s worldly calling, which, especially in the Calvinist view, were deemed signs of an individual’s election, or eternal salvation. Calvinism’s antipathy to the worship of the flesh, its emphasis on the religious duty to make fruitful use of the God-given resources at each individual’s disposal, and its orderliness and systemization of ways of life were regarded by Weber as economically significant aspects of the ethic.

Weber argues that this new attitude broke down the traditional economic system, paving the way for modern capitalism. However, once capitalism emerged, the Protestant values were no longer necessary, and their ethic took on a life of its own. We are now locked into the spirit of capitalism because it is so useful for modern economic activity.

Answer : Psychology deals with the mental process of man considered as a social being. It studies particularly the influence of group life of the mental development of an individual, the effect of the individual mind on the group and development of the mental life of the groups within themselves and in their relation with one another. Sociology, on the other hand, studies the various kinds of groups that compose the society.

Psychology has to depend on sociology to properly understand human behavior and nature, as it is sociology that provides the necessary material regarding the structure, organization, and culture of the societies to which individual belongs. They recognize the importance of psychological factors, among other things, in understanding the changes in social structure.

McDougall and Freud were of the view that whole of the social life could be reduced finally psychological forces. In that case, sociology would be reduced to a mere branch of psychology. But this view cannot be accepted, as the causes affecting social behavior are other than psychological, such as economic, geographical and political.

Social life, therefore, cannot be studied exclusively with the methods of the psychologist. But the fact of mutual dependence of psychology and sociology should not be interpreted to mean that one is either identical with or the branch of the other. There are important points of distinction between these two related fields of investigation.

Individual behavior has quite a different status in the psychological view, where to Sigmund Freud human civilization is possible only by coercing the individuals and repressing their natural impulses. The social is, therefore, explained by the individual.

Answer : Industrialization had a profound impact on the family life in west that changed the traditional family life with the emergence of modern industries and social compulsions emerging out of it.

Before the Industrial Revolution, the extended family was the norm in the Western world. The foundation to family life were based upon romantic love, mutual appreciation and prolonged childhood.

William Goode considers that in case of west, industrialization gave rise to the migration of rural population to urban centers, urban living being costly, women were forced to get out from family to job market that consequently affected to the fertility role of women, the size of family become small, affluence of the family increased and woman’s status in nuclear family become about equivalent to man.

Modern nuclear family in west glorifies the values of individualism and utilitarianism. Gertz advocates that modern nuclear family in west is driven by the principle of great expectation from each other when there is a gap between expectation and achievement that leads to suspicion, violence, divorce, or children running away from family.

Therefore, modern nuclear family is not a paradox in this nuclear world rather it is vulnerable to disintegration because of tension coming from within.

In conclusion, it can be advocated that sociologist looks into social transformation of family is changing structural and functional roles reflecting on social and economic transformation.

Answer : Sociology emerged in Europe due to the modernization process marked by the Enlightenment, the French Revolution and the industrial revolution. During Enlightenment the philosophical ideas guided by rationality rather than faith and superstition started making way towards new thinking. French revolution marked the arrival of political sovereignty and feudalism got replaced by democracy.

During industrial revolution the systematic application of science and technology was done to the production system. Though it increased production, it threw up many new problems as pollution, inhumane working conditions, child and women exploitation in industries. Now, many thinkers thought that poverty and exploitation are created by the human beings and are not natural. So, the solution has to be found out by us only.

Therefore, they started to study society, make laws to predict and improve the conditions of living. Along with these thinkers, there were conservationists such as Bonald and Maistre who wanted to go back to the olden era. Thus, they defined the goal that sociology should achieve.

In USA, it was the Chicago school which developed first. As Chicago was a rapidly growing multi-ethnic society consisting of blacks and whites, the sociologist there saw a new social process happening. They saw various immigrant cultures developing and living in ghettos whose thoughts were different from American thoughts.

They started studying the society empirically. Dubois and Adams conducted a study “the Philadelphia negro” which depicted the living conditions of blacks under racial discrimination. As the sociologists there were pained by the conditions of blacks, they started to think about the social reformation of society which gave impetus to sociology in USA.

Answer : From establishment of sociology, a lot of differences has occurred between sociologist and social scientist on what is sociology and what it should be.

Earlier, positivist thinkers treated it as a pure science, whereas a class of sociologists was not agreeing on its status of pure science because of its different nature from natural science.

In this series, German sociologist Max Weber said that, “Sociology is a science which attempts the interpretive understanding of social action to arrive at a casual explanation of its cause and effects”. Above statement of Max Weber has become base of interpretative sociology.

Max Weber emphasizes that sociology is not satisfied with general meaning in social action, but it tries to give meaningful understanding. Any incident or situation has two meaning-first is assumed by most people of society and second is assu- med rationally by obtaining complete information about situation of people.

According to Weber, sociologists should try to search this second meaning. For this, Weber presented verstehan.

According to Weber, human is not like a physical, chemical or biological thing but it is a creative thoughtful being and due to which human society is an area of different meaning. For Weber, Sociology is a study of interpretive understanding of social action. It is said Verstehan means method of understanding the subjective meaning about world given by social actor.

This interpretative sociology related thoughts of Weber has given new direction to sociology. In this sequence developed the assumption of interpretative sociology by giving importance to status of person.

Answer : Sociology as a discipline is generic and umbrella in nature as it deals with the totality of human interactions and examination. It is also a systematic study of social behaviours and human groups. It delves primarily into the influence of social relationships on people attitudes and behaviours and on how societies are established and changed.

Sociology is also concerned about social facts in the economy, education, legal, religion, family, technology. Within the province of these subsystems both the aspects of human society and every type of social relationship can be examined.

The scientific assessment of the social facts within the society can also serve as an avenue to curve discomfort and instability in the society amongst the people. Hence, sociology as a field can assists the member of any society to serve attitudinal, behavioural and social problems to actualise a healthy growth and development of such society. Sociologists as people are serving the society in a variety of capacities as teachers, lecturers, researchers, journalists, workers in industry social workers, farm planners, criminologists, probation officers and so forth.

Sociology also performs several roles within the society as an indispensable impetus to enhance its coutinuity and stability and assists in the analysis and clarification of different types of relationships within the society which produce such social institutions and associations through which the behaviour of individuals are organised and controlled. It is the concern of sociology to identify why certain undesirable behaviours manifested in human beings and how such behaviour could be checked and reformed.

For instance within the society there are social deviants who probably get initiated or apprehended into such unacceptable behaviours due to ignorance and other varied reasons beyond the victims explanation. Sociology exposes members of the society to how authority and power are derived within the society and why certain values customs, beliefs and practices are held. Sociology also attempts to establish the links between the different sub-systems in the society.

It also studies the relationship between the political system and economic system or the relationship between the educational system and political system. Sociology intimates individuals with the changes within the society and the effects of such changes on human existence. Through sociology it is revealed that the society is dynamic and transitory in nature. Sociology also examines human background and various forms orientation within the society. Within the societal settings there are diversifications of cultural background and upbringings.

The environment within which an individual is born and bred has significant influence in values, beliefs, traits and ideas which the person internalises conceptualises. This understanding will assist in tolerating and accommodating others with differences in cultural background and orientation. Sociology also operates within the realm of human needs. In the society, there are basic social needs which individuals aspire to achieve for meaningful existence and purposeful survival. Sociology also identify various human needs in society and explains how those needs are met and satisfied. It also explains the danger in unwholesome approach to satisfy one’s needs.

Thus, sociology is a practical discipline which helps in solving many human problems and their existence.

Answer : Origin of sociology as discipline began in the 19th century Europe and for the emergence of sociology in Europe there were various modernisation factors. Such as:

1. Enlightment that swept Europe in the eighteenth century.
2. French revolution which began in 1789 inspired by the enlightment, and
3. Industrial Revolution in mid-eighteenth century in Europe.

Beginning of enlightment examined many questions in the European society. Such as why is there inequality, why is poverty, etc. Before the eighteenth century the answers of these questions have been religious. Such as God has planned the development of society, human being fell from the grace of God and it was through God’s intervention that society had a lawful order. It was also explained that inequality is God’s way of establishing order and rewarding good people. Kings and Churches are God’s representative on the Earth and it was their efforts that things work properly. It was also held that ordinary human beings have no right to question the king and doing so is similar to questioning God’s law. But enlightment and modernisation in Europe altered the traditional explanation of human suffering. various intellectuals focussed that if the world is evil, it is because of human being.

Various intellectuals also emphasized that society is being created by the people and people can determine what kind of society should be. The strong belief emerged through enlightment that human actions is largely influenced by society’s pattern, led to development of sociology as science in the 19th century. The modernisation in Europe was also the period where science being applied to study the society. This was also the period when natural sciences blossomed in Europe. Such as John Kepler established the true orbits of planets, S.I. Newton established the law of gravity and many intellectuals saw power in science that could be used to understand society and human behaviour. Intellectuals also rejected the notion of using religion to understand the world.

The French Revolution in 1789 destroyed the dominance of nobility and gave the Idea of liberty, equality and fraternity. Industrial Revolution gave many political and economic developments. As a consequence of Industrial Revolution, Europe’s economy shifted from agricultural one to an economy based on manufacturing, trading, etc.

Industrial revolution also gave birth to numerous cities and thereby urban societies. Thus European Society greatly transformed where tradition was replaced by demand for efficiency, religious values changed by modern values.

These modernising incidents gave boost up for the emergence of sociology and finally sociology as discipline came into existence with the effort of Auguste comte who coined the term ‘Sociology’ to study human society and its behaviours.

Answer : The structure of society is so vast and complex that a general science which studies it in its entirety must be supplemented by special sciences which study the parts.

Accordingly, in the modern age, no sociologist can deny the utility of other social sciences like history, psychology, authropology, economics and political science in the study of sociology. In the words of G.E.Howard “History is past Sociology and Sociology is present History”.

History and Sociology are, indeed. very closely related. History provides the perspective to locate present society on a continuum of man’s past, present and future.”

History is the reconstruction of man’s past. It is the story of the experience of mankind, a systematic record of man’s life and achievements from the dim past to the present.

Sociology, on the other hand, as a science of society, is interested in the present. It tries to analyse human interactions and social relations with all their complexity and diversity. And this is where, history comes to the aid of sociology.

History with its record of various social events of the past offers data and facts to sociologists to study various stages of human life, mode of living, customs, manners and their expression in the form of social institutions and associations.

Further, a historian is also not satisfied, with mere description. He seeks to learn the causes of these events to understand the past-not only how it has been but also how it came to be.

Robert Bierstedt’s words sum up very beautifully this symbiotic relationship-”If the past is of as a continuous cloth unrolling through the centuries, history is interested in the individual threads and strands that make it up; sociology in the patterns it exhibits.”

History provides sociology a ground to trace the evolution of society and man. Sociology mirrors the growth of and the movement of the same to its present state. A sociologist is primarily concerned with the present day society.

But the present day society can be better understood only with a comprehensive knowledge of its past because the two are intricately related. Present stands on the edifice of past. Further, sociology has also given a new perspective to history. It provides the social background for the study of history. It is said that history would be meaningless without the appreciation of socially significant events.

Answer : Society was studied earlier by religious and political philosophers. But, sociology emerged as a distinct science in 19th century Europe.

Europe was then passing through a period of immense changes which had set in with the French and the Industrial Revolutions. Indeed, sociology can be considered above all a science of the new industrial society.

Certain developments in Europe paved the way for the emergence of this discipline. The historicity of the process of modernization of Europe began with the Commercial Revolution and the Scientific Revolution at a time when the beams of the ‘Renaissance’ revived the life of people in the field of art, literature, music, sculpture, science and so on.

Commercial Revolution: It refers to the expansion of trade and commerce that took place from the 15^th century onwards. It was of such a large scale and organized manner that it is called a ‘Revolution’. This expansion was the result of the initiative taken by some European countries like Portugal, Spain, Holland and England.

The Commercial Revolution led to overseas discoveries and conquests, for example, Christopher Columbus of Italy sailed to India but landed on the shores of North America. Such discoveries of new societies led to emergence of cross-cultural study of societies which in turn led to the science of sociology.

The Commercial Revolution resulted in money and market economy and diluted the subsistence economy like Jajamani system of Indian society. This altered the agrarian structure of societies and gave impetus to the rise of sociology as a distinct discipline.

The market economy in turn led to rise of middle class consisting of educated people and merchants who played a decisive role in the French and the Industrial Revolutions. The rise of middle class led to study of stratification of society as an important aspect of sociology.

The Commercial Revolution resulted in the Europeanisation of the World. Europeanisation means transplanting European manners and culture in other societies. This led to study of different cultures and religions of different societies giving rise to sociology as a discipline.

Scientific Revolution: The highly educated intellectuals like Martin Luther questioned the corrupt practices of the Church. They propagated scientific education in place of the logical education.

They imbibed the spirit of science in European society which changed the attitude, beliefs and ideas of the people. They began to question the extravagant religious rituals developed by clergies and they also propagated new schooling system based on rational and scientific ideas.

These resulted in new discoveries and inventions and viewed human organism in terms of interrelated parts and interconnected systems- this had its impact on the social thoughts of Comte, Spencer, Durkheim and other sociologists.

Enlightenment: The philosophy of Enlightenment, which was a driving factor in the French Revolution, played a great role in the emergence of sociology. Before it, thinking about the whole of society and the action of ordinary people was not important; instead thinkers were interested mainly in the powerful kings, lords, popes and bishops.

But the Intellectual Movement or the Enlightenment that swept through Europe in the eighteenth century provoked thinkers to see society as something more than the upper class and powerful, and in a sense it discovered the society.

Describing the thoughts and actions of ordinary people became significant for understanding the general conditions of society.

This transition away from equating society with the state or the political order was significant in developing the kind of interest in society that led to the creation of sociology in the nineteenth century.

French Revolution: The French Revolution of 1789 was a turning point in the history of human struggle for freedom and equality. This revolution brought about far reaching changes in not only French society but societies throughout Europe.

Even countries like India were influenced by the ideas generated during this revolution like liberty, fraternity and equality.

Prior to this Revolution, there were three estates in French society with different status, privileges and restrictions. This Revolution dismantled this estate system and brought uniformity in social structure.

This Revolution also promoted the ideas of democracy, separation of powers, religious toleration and freedom of speech. The French Revolution altered social system prevailed under feudalism and religious clergies. This new political society led to the emergence of sociology as a separate subject of study.

Industrial Revolution: The Industrial Revolution led to massive production of goods and services. This replaced family as an institution of education with separate modern educational institution.

The Industrial Revolution resulted in Factory-system which in turn led to emergence of working class, who didn’t know each other personally, and finally of Bureaucracy.

The Industrial Revolution led to rural migration as well as urbanization and diluted the joint family system. The emergence of nuclear family, working class and new forms of marriages gave impetus to the emergence of sociology.

Even today, the modernization of Europe is influencing the study of societies in the forms of gay marriage, feminist’s movements, and environmental movement and so on. Therefore, the relationship between the modernisation of Europe and the emergence of sociology is symbiotic.

Answer : Role of value in sociology enquiry: The role of value in sociological enquiry is debatable. As sociologists observe social reality of their own society, implicitly or explicitly the social research is value laden.

Beginning from August Comte a positivist advocated for value free sociology and studied social structure. Likewise Durkheim and Karl Marx studied social structure without giving importance to value.

Max Weber in his work, ‘The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism’ gave importance to social action determined by value system which in turn leads to social consequence and social structure.

Talcott Parson in his ‘Social System and Pattern Variable’ gave importance to value system which are responsible for socialization consequently leading to different social roles and social institutions. However, as David J. Gray in his paper ‘Value Free Sociology:

A Doctrine of Hypocrisy and Irresponsibility argues Durkheim’s classic work, ‘Suicide’ did not shy away from the value question. Durkheim discussed at some length the means by which the evil (suicide) could be overcome.

Gray also says value orientation in Comte’s advocacy of a sociocracy, Tonnies bias for Gemeinschaft as opposed to Gesellschaft, Cooley’s fascination for primary groups, Veblen’s condemnation of conspicuous leisure, all testify to value commitments on their part. As sociology is neither philosophy nor biology, but is partly science.

Answer : sociology is a discipline which studies social relationship or it is the network of social relationship which according to MacIver is called society. The entire social relationship, to a great extent developed by mankind during his struggle for achieving their livelihood and political upliftment. Thus, like a triangle, sociology is the base and economics and political science are two other dimensions of the man's life which are mutually correlated and have no independent existence. A. Lowie in his book "Economics and Sociology" has examined the list of pure economics and discovered two sociological principle which underline a classical law of the market: "the economic man" and competition or mobility of the factor of production. Morris Ginsberg remarked, "Historically, sociology has its main roots in politics and philosophy of history. Political science is considered as a branch of social science dealing with the principle of organisation and government of human society". The intermixing subject matter of sociology and political science are studied under the branch of sociology called "Political Sociology".

Sociology also differs with economics and political science in terms of approaches, methodology, scope and goals. The subject matter of these three discipline widely differs. According to Gilchrist "Sociology studies man as a social being and political organisation is a special kind of social organisation. The same is true in case of economics. The political science starts with the assumption that man is a political being while, sociology tries to explain how and why man became a political being. Like the concept of social and political man, the concept of "economic man" has also been propounded.

According to Marx the superstructure of the society is shaped by infrastructure, that is economics. During the economic production process relationship develops which are both social and political in nature. On the other hand, Talcott Parsons has argued that the economic behaviour can never be understood adequately if it is divorced from social milieu. Thus, sociology, economics and political science are three distinguished as well as correlated science.

Answer : The classification of primary group and secondary group was given by Charles Horton Cooley. A primary group is usually small, though all small groups are not primary groups. The members of primary groups have face to face contact, intimate and cooperative relationships, and strong loyalty towards each other. The members of primary group don’t have any ends or goals in view as the relationship between the members is end in itself. Members of this groups derive pleasure and enjoyment merely by associating with one another. Examples of primary group are mainly family, peer groups etc. Family was regarded by Cooley as main primary group.

The term reference group was used into the literature on small groups by Muzaffer Sheriff in book, ‘An outline of social psychology’ 1948 and by Herbert Hyman in ‘Archives of Psychology’ (1942). Reference group effects the behaviour of an individual as he aspires to be its member or keeps it as a model. It is the group against which an individual evaluates his or her own situation or conduct. Hyman and Sheriff both have distinguished between a membership group to which people actually belong, and a reference group; which is used as a basis for comparison. A reference may or not be a membership group. Reference group can be both positive and negative. Merton has also made contribution in developing the concept of reference group. According to Merton, “reference groups are those groups which are referring points of the individual towards which he is oriented and which influences his opinion, tendency and behaviour.” Robert Merton and Alice Kitt both have provided a systematic functionalist formulation of the concept of reference group. Merton has also distinguished between reference groups and interaction groups. The interactionist perspective of reference group is highlighted by George Herbert Mead’s idea of generalized others.

Answer : During the eighteenth century, the European economy shifted from a strictly agricultural one to an economy based more on production, manufacture, trading and money. Scholars sometimes call this shift, "The industrial Revolution". Merchants were gaining great amount of wealth, and the landed aristocracy was losing its importance, its wealth and its powers. Cities increasingly became the centre of power and new ideas, and the traditional institutions tied to the old agricultural society were increasingly suspect. The French Revolution was primarily an attempt by the new merchant class to overthrow what was left of the old agricultural society. It was the triumph of new economic order, and it ushered in an age of rapid industrial growth that transformed every aspect of European life.

The development of Sociology was a reaction to the industrial Revolution, as well as to the French Revolution. The early sociologists saw European society being transformed: tradition was being replaced by the demands for efficiency and large scale planning, religion and family were being changed by more modern values, and the cities were becoming the centres of society. The concern for order and stability in society that the French Revolution caused in some early conservative sociologists was reinforced by the Industrial Revolution. And the Industrial Revolution, because it telescoped the problems of inequality by locating large number of poor people in the urban centres, also encouraged the development of more radical tradition in Sociology.

Answer : Max Weber (1864-1920) was the founder of "interpretive sociology" the basic premise of which is that the facts and data are fully amenable to sensory observation. According to him Sociology makes critical interpretation on social action. All the social behaviour is viewed as observable from without. Even, the internal meaning and motives underlying the behaviours of a person are supposed to be shaped by forces outside him, namely the society. According to Weber social reality is characterised by "geist" and "consciousness" Due to the presence of consciousness, people ascribe meaning to the situation around them which include other people too. The meaning influences the subsequent behaviour. Consequently any attempt to understand social reality must be taken into account for these meaning and motives. The meaning aspired by the people are partly determined by the cultural norms and partly shaped by the individual actors. Thus, an attempt to understand social behaviour should not stop simply as observation from without, instead it should involve interpretation of underlying meaning and motives. This requires the use of new methods through which the empathetic liaison can be established between the observer and the actor. Empathetic liaison means that the observer tries to place himself imaginatively in actor's position. Having established empathetic liaison, the sociologists should try to figure out meaning and motives given by the actor. In terms of these meaning and motives, he then tries to rationally explain the actor's behaviours. The various processes in Sociology such as socialisation, competition, conflict etc. and institutions such as political, religious, economic etc. are studied in this way. Thus, there is no exaggeration in saying Sociology as an interpretive discipline.

Answer : A science is a body of organised and verified knowledge secured through scientific observation. The scientific method consists of observation, laboratory experimentation, objectivity and value neutrality and the variable conclusion. The subject matter of Sociology is such that the scientific method is both applicable in some areas whereas it is inapplicable in other fields of the discipline. Thus it will be exaggeration to say Sociology as a totally scientific subject. Some of the areas of Sociology where application of scientific methods such sociometry, schedule, questionnaire, interviews and case History may be applied are demography, tribal study etc. Secondly the observation and comparison method of Sociology are scientific in nature. Thirdly, in the study of social disorganisation, Sociology apply cause-effect relationship and how as well as why of social processes. Like science, sociology collects arranged and organised facts. It is interpretive and gives causal explanation of social phenomena. On the other hand laboratory experimentation, objectivity, value-neutrality and other features of science cannot be applied to get verified knowledge of social relationship and values. In sociology, in spite of availability of facts and finding, one cannot make exact prediction or reach an ultimate conclusion of the future happening of the political, economic, educational, religious etc. processes of the society. Robert Bierstedt has pointed out Sociology is social not natural , positive not normative, theoretical not applied, generalising not particularising, rational not empirical science of the society.