It

is the study of the science of society, social institutions and social relationships.
It

is interested in describing and explaining human behavior, especially as it occurs within a social context; less interested in the individual than in the group of which they are a part.

Sociology is the systematic study of how human societies shape the lives of people who live in them. People make lots of decisions in the course of living every day. But we make these decisions within the context of "society;" our family, school, nation and the larger world. The essential wisdom of sociology is; the social world guides our life choices just as the seasons influence our selection of activities and clothing.

Two aspects of the sociological perspective (by Peter Berger)

1. Sociology enables us to see the general in the particular This means finding general patterns in particular events.
2.Sociology enables us to see the strange in the familiar This means detaching ourselves from common explanations by taking a new look at society.

History of sociology as a science and its forerunners

Auguste Comte: the Father of Sociology Comte (1798-1857) grew up in the wake of the French Revolution, Comte further favored positivism, an approach to understanding the world based on science. He believed that society operates according to certain laws, just as the physical world operates according to gravity and other laws of nature.

Karl Marx forerunner of the conflict theory Marx (1818 1883), a native of Germany, wrote the Communist Manifesto with Friedrich Engels in 1847. This book focused on the misery of the lower classes caused by the existing social order. Marx reiterated that political revolution was vitally significant in the evolutionary process of society, the only means to achieve improvement of social conditions.

Marx: Sociologists still study his insights regarding class conflict, economic determinism, social stratification and social change.

Herbert Spencer Spencer (1820 1903) likened society to an organism with a life and vitality of its own. He first used the term survival of the fittest when he proposed the policy of noninterference in human affairs and society, believing that doing something to help the weak, poor and needy would interfere with the natural selection process in his native England.

Emile Durkheim first French sociologist Durkheim (1858-1917) put forward the idea that individuals are more the products rather than the creators of society; the society itself is external to the individual. He wrote the books The Division of labor in society, The Rules of Sociological Method, Suicide and Elementary Forms of Religious Life.

Max Weber Weber (1864 1920) believed that a sympathetic understanding, verstehen, of the mind of others was essential to understanding the behavior of others. The qualitative, subjective methods as well as objective, quantitative methods should be used in the study of social actions.

How sociology started in the Philippines

3 stages: 1. Sociology was viewed as social philosophy
This orientation started with the inclusion of

sociology in college and university offerings and taught as social philosophy It was introduced by Fr. Valentin Marin when he initiated a course on criminology at UST There was little emphasis on the scientific nature of sociology

2. Sociology was viewed as a problem or welfare oriented discipline

This view was put forward by Serafin

Macaraig, the first Filipino to acquire a doctorate in sociology and the first to write a sociology textbook, An Introduction to Sociology in 1938. Very little social research was done

3. Sociology takes the scientific orientation

This started with the increased number of educational

exchange program grantees, the establishment of social science research centers and councils, the growing frequency of conferences and the publication of professional journals. Public and private agencies became increasingly aware of the significance of social facts in the decision-making process. The data collected by pioneer Filipino sociologist Benicio Catapusan on rural Philippines for the government became the benchmark for the distribution of economic aid to the different regions.

How is Sociology similar and different from the other social and behavioral sciences?

History Sociology is like history in that sociologist also attempts to establish the social contexts that influence people. However, unlike historians, sociologist is primarily concerned with events in the present

Political science Sociology is also similar to political science in that sociologists too, study how people govern one another, especially the consequence for peoples lives of various forms of government. Unlike political scientist and economist sociologist do not concentrate on only a single social institution

Economics Sociology is like economics in that sociologist also are highly interested in what happens to the goods and service of a society, especially the social consequence of production and distribution.

Anthropology Sociology is similar with anthropology in that sociologist also study culture and are particularly interested in the social consequences of material goods, group structure, and belief system, as well as how people communicate with one another. Unlike anthropologist, sociologist primarily focuses on industrialized societies.

Psychology Sociology is like psychology in that sociologist are primarily concerned with how people adjust to the various contingence they confront in life. Unlike psychologist, to determine what influences people, sociologists stress variables external to the individual.