Sociology is such a wide-ranging science that it is hard to define where its boundaries start and end. There are two main viewpoints among sociologists regarding the scope of sociology: the Specialistic (or Formalistic) School and the Synthetic School.
Two Schools of Thought
Specialistic or Formalistic School
Headed by German sociologist Simmel, this school includes Max Weber, Small, Vierkandt, Von Wiese, and Tonnies. They see sociology as a pure, independent field, looking into specific aspects of human relationships.
Focus on Forms: Sociology should focus on the ‘forms’ of social relationships (like competition, division of labor) rather than their content.
Max Weber’s Interpretation: Sociology aims to interpret social behavior, but not all human interactions are social. Sociology analyzes and classifies social relationship types.
Vierkandt Perspective: Sociology deals with the mental or psychic relationships linking people in society. It should focus on discovering fundamental forces of change and persistence, not the historical study of concrete society.
Limited Scope: Small, von Wiese, and Tonnies believe sociology has a limited scope and doesn’t study all societal activities.
Criticisms of the Formalistic School:
Narrow Scope: It restricts sociology to studying abstract forms. Sociology should study both the general forms of social relationships and their concrete contents.
Overlapping Disciplines: Political science, international law, and economics also study social relationships.
Impractical “Pure Sociology”: No sociologist has created a pure sociology, and social sciences cannot be studied in isolation. An interdisciplinary approach is needed.
Abstract vs. Concrete: Social forms cannot be separated from their content because social forms change as the contents change.
Shrinking the Scope: This school of thought has extremely reduced the scope of sociology.
Synthetic School
This school aims to make sociology a synthesis of social sciences, not a pure discipline. Key figures include Durkheim, Hobhouse, Sorokin, and Morsi Ginsberg.
Durkheim’s Divisions: Sociology has three divisions: social morphology (the geographical basis of people’s lives), social physiology (sociology of religion, morals, law, etc.), and general sociology (formulates general laws).
Sorokin’s View: Sociology studies the relationships between different aspects of social phenomena, between social and non-social elements, and the general features of social phenomena.
Hobhouse’s View: Sociologists should study the social field, connect the results from different social sciences, and interpret social life as a whole.
Ginsberg’s View: Sociology studies social morphology (population characteristics, social structure), social control (customs, traditions, religion), social processes (cooperation, competition, conflict), and social pathology (poverty, crime).
Conclusion
Sociology’s scope is vast, as it is both a general and specialized science. While the subject matter of all social sciences is society, their perspectives differentiate them. Sociology uniquely studies social relationships and society itself, including social traditions, processes, morphology, control, pathology, and the effects of extra-social elements on social relationships. It is neither possible nor necessary to limit sociology’s scope.
