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•Sociology (from Latin: socius, "companion"; and the suffix -ology, "the study of", from
Greek λόγος, lógos, "knowledge" [1]) is the scientific or systematic study of society,
including patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and cultureHYPERLINK \l
"cite_note-1"[2]. Areas studied in sociology can range from the analysis of brief contacts
between anonymous individuals on the street to the study of global social interaction.
Numerous fields within the discipline concentrate on how and why people are organized
in society, either as individuals or as members of associations, groups, and institutions.
Sociology is considered a branch of social science.
Sociological research provides educators, planners, lawmakers, administrators,
developers, business leaders, and people interested in resolving social problems and
formulating public policy with rationales for the actions that they take.
==History==
{{main|History of sociology}}
[[Image:Auguste Comte.jpg|thumb|right|[[Auguste Comte]]]]
Sociology, including economic, political, and cultural systems, has origins in
the common stock of human [[knowledge]] and [[philosophy]]. [[Social
analysis]] has been carried out by scholars and [[philosophy|philosophers]] at
least as early as the time of [[Plato]].
There is evidence of early [[Greek]] (e.g. [[Xenophanes]]<ref>''The
[[Ethopians|Ethiops]] say that their gods are flat-nosed and black,<br>While
the [[Thrace|Thracians]] say that theirs have blue eyes and red hair.<br>Yet if
cattle or horses or lions had hands and could draw,<br>And could sculpture
like men, then the horses would draw their gods<br>Like horses, and cattle
like cattle; and each they would shape<br>Bodies of gods in the likeness, each
kind, of their own.''<br>(Hermann Diels and W. Kranz (eds.), ''Die Fragmente
der Vorsokratiker'', 6th edn. Zurich)</ref>, [[Xenophon]]<ref>cf.
''[[Cyropaedia]]''</ref> , [[Polybios]]<ref>cf. ''The Histories''</ref>) and [[early
Muslim sociology|Muslim sociological contribution]]s, especially by [[Ibn
Khaldun]],<ref> in his ''[[Muqaddimah]]'' from the [[14th century]], later
translated as ''Prolegomena'' in [[Latin]]), the introduction to a seven volume
analysis of [[universal history]], in which he advanced theories of [[structural
cohesion|social cohesion]] and [[social conflict]]</ref> whose
''[[Muqaddimah]]'' is viewed as the earliest work dedicated to sociology as a
[[social science]].<ref name=Mowlana>H. Mowlana (2001). "Information in the
Arab World", ''Cooperation South Journal'' '''1'''.</ref><ref name=Akhtar>Dr.
S. W. Akhtar (1997). "The Islamic Concept of Knowledge", ''Al-Tawhid: A
Quarterly Journal of Islamic Thought & Culture'' '''12''' (3).</ref> Several other
forerunners of sociology, from [[Giambattista Vico]] up to [[Karl Marx]], are
nowadays considered classical sociologists.
"Classical" theorists of sociology from the late 19th and early 20th centuries
include [[Ferdinand Tönnies]], [[Émile Durkheim]], [[Karl Marx]], [[Herbert
Spencer]], [[Vilfredo Pareto]], [[Ludwig Gumplowicz]], [[Georg Simmel]] and
[[Max Weber]]. Like Comte, these figures did not consider themselves only
"sociologists". Their works addressed [[religion]], [[education]], [[economics]],
[[law]], [[psychology]], [[ethics]], [[philosophy]] and [[theology]], and their
theories have been applied in a variety of academic disciplines. Their
influence on sociology was foundational.
===Institutionalizing sociology===
The discipline was taught by its own name for the first time at the [[University
of Kansas]], [[Lawrence,_Kansas|Lawrence]] in 1890 by Frank Blackmar, under
the course title ''Elements of Sociology''. It remains the oldest continuing
sociology course in the United states. The Department of History and
Sociology at the University of Kansas was established in 1891
<ref>http://www.ku.edu/%7Esocdept/about/ University of Kansas Sociology
Department Webpage</ref>
<ref>http://www.news.ku.edu/2005/June/June15/sociology.shtml University of
Kansas News Story</ref>, and the first full-fledged independent university.
The department of sociology was established in 1892 at the [[University of
Chicago]] by [[Albion W. Small]], who in 1895 founded the ''[[American
Journal of
Sociology]]''.<ref>http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/AJS/home.html American
Journal of Sociology Website</ref>
Early theorists' approach to sociology, led by Comte, was to treat it in much the
same manner as [[natural science]], applying the same methods and
[[methodology]] used in the natural sciences to study [[Social phenomenon|
social phenomena]]. The emphasis on [[empiricism]] and the [[scientific
method]] sought to provide an incontestable foundation for any sociological
claims or findings, and to distinguish sociology from less empirical fields such
as [[philosophy]]. This methodological approach, called [[Sociological
positivism|positivism]] assumes that the only authentic knowledge is
scientific knowledge, and that such knowledge can only come from positive
affirmation of theories through strict scientific method.
One push away from positivism was philosophical and political, such as in the
[[dialectical materialism]] based on Marx' theories. A second push away from
scientific positivism was cultural, becoming sociological. As early as the 19th
century, [[positivist]] and [[Natural science|naturalist]] approaches to studying
[[Social relation|social life]] were questioned by scientists like [[Wilhelm
Dilthey]] and [[Heinrich Rickert]], who argued that the natural world differs
from the [[Social reality|social world]] because of unique aspects of human
society such as meanings, [[symbol]]s, [[rule]]s, [[Norm (sociology)|norm]]s,
and [[Value (personal and cultural)|values]]. These elements of society inform
human [[culture]]s. This view was further developed by [[Max Weber]], who
introduced [[antipositivism]] ([[humanistic sociology]]). According to this
view, which is closely related to [[antinaturalism]], sociological research must
concentrate on humans' cultural values (see also: [[French Pragmatism]]).
<!-- need some wording about subjectivity, postmodernism, and feminist
epistemological answers to positivism -->
Since [[World War II]], sociology has been revived in Europe, although during
the [[Stalin]] and [[Mao]] eras it was suppressed in the [[communist]]
countries. In the mid-20th century, there was a general (but not universal)
trend for US-American sociology to be more scientific in nature, due partly to
the prominent influence at that time of [[Functionalism (sociology)|structural
functionalism]]. Sociologists developed new types of [[quantitative research|
quantitative]] and [[qualitative research]] methods. In the second half of the
[[20th century]], sociological research has been increasingly employed as a tool
by governments and businesses. Parallel with the rise of various [[social
movements]] in the 1960s, theories emphasizing social struggle, including
[[conflict theory]] (which sought to counter [[Functionalism (sociology)|
structural functionalism]]) and [[neomarxist]] theories, began to receive more
attention.