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Scope of the subject of sociology and comparison with other social sciences.

Scope of the SubjectSociology as coined by Auguste Comte comprises of two terms Society and Logos (Study), so itmeans a reasoned study of society. As a scientific and reasoned study of society, sociology encompassesalmost each and every sphere of life of a human being because most of the activities of a human beingare conducted in groups. From the mundane act of cooking by a house wife to the highly sophisticatedact of experimenting at International Space Station by an astronaut can be studied under sociology.Former act can be studied from various sociological viewpoints such as sexual division of labour,functions of a family, eating habits of a particular community, effect of social stratification on nutritionalintake of a family and so on. While the latter act can be studied from the vantage point of groupbehavior of an individual under extreme circumstances, norms guiding the scientific acts, social cohesionamong highly rational individuals and many more. Above examples show that scope of sociology islimited only by the limitations of human thought.Although Sociology is a highly general and exhaustive subject but its approach isqualified by a certain specificity. Sociology sees the phenomena from a societal point of view. Asociologist concentrates on those aspects of a phenomenon which helps him to explain it as a socialphenomenon. He doesnt wander into the specific descriptive and explanatory aspects unless required.For example, A sociologist studying the social behavior of individuals in a pub will concentrate onaspects such as age group of visitors, social background of visitors, maintenance of relationship formedat pubs etc. He will not bother about the harmful effects of drinking at a pub on the health of anindividual or the economics of pub-going etc. He will leave these tasks to a biologist and an economistrespectively. Though, he may use the findings of these in order to carry forward his study. So it can besaid that sociology, by virtue of being a general science of society, delegates its works to other sciencesand refrains from being indulged in specific nuances of a phenomenon.Being a bit more specific it can be said that Sociology studies society and its institutions likepolitics, religion, economy, education, culture etc. Distribution of power among various social classes,Effect of religious ideas on the economy of a society, Role of education in maintainence of a society,family, individuals status; Effect of change in technology on culture of a society are the kinds of studysociology does. Broadly, There are three levels of approaches by which society is studied in sociologyviz. Macro-level, Middle Level and Micro-Level. Macro-level study involves grand theorizing of the socialphenomena to explain the society as a whole e.g. The Marxian view that whole of Political, legal, culturaland religious superstructure of society is based on economic infrastructure i.e. social forces andrelations of production of goods in the economy. Micro-level study comprises the study of the meaningswhich individuals attach to their social interactions and actions and then using these meanings toexplain the social phenomena. E.g. studying the motive of a religious person in going to church andthereby explaining the religion in society as a whole. As the name suggests Middle-level study focuseson the middle space between the macro-level and micro-level, between society as a whole and anindividual. It studies institutions coming at the middle level like family, peer groups, clubs etc