Sociology is the study of society.

[1] It is a social sciencea term with which it is sometimes synonymouswhich uses various methods of empirical investigation[2] and critical analysis[3] to develop and refine a body of knowledge about human social activity.For some sociologists, the goal is to apply such knowledge to the pursuit of social welfare, while for others it is to seek an understanding of how individuals are influenced by the social world we live in. Subject matter ranges from the micro level of the individual agency and interaction to the macro level of systems and groups social structures. Sociology is both topically and methodologically a very broad discipline. Its traditional focuses have included social stratification, social class, social mobility, religion, secularisation, law, deviance, medical sociology and sociological social psychology. As all spheres of human activity are sculpted by social structure and individual agency, sociology has gradually expanded its focus to further subjects, such ashealth, military and penal institutions, the Internet, and even the role of social activity in the development of scientific knowledge. The range of social scientific methods has also broadly expanded. Social researchers draw upon a variety of qualitative and quantitative techniques. The linguistic and cultural turns of the mid-twentieth century led to increasingly interpretative, hermeneutic, and philosophic approaches to the analysis of society. Conversely, recent decades have seen the rise of new analytically, mathematically and computationallyrigorous techniques, such as agent-based modelling and social network analysis. Origins Sociological reasoning predates the foundation of the discipline. Social analysis has origins in the common stock of Western knowledge and philosophy, and has been carried out from at least as early as the time ofPlato. The origin of the survey, i.e., the collection of information from a sample of individuals, can be traced back at least early as the Domesday Book in 1086,[7][8] while ancient philosophers such as Confucius wrote on the importance of social roles. There is evidence of early sociology in medieval Islam. Some consider Ibn Khaldun, a 14th century Arab Islamic scholar from North Africa, to have been the first sociologist; hisMuqaddimah was perhaps the first work to advance social-scientific reasoning on social cohesion and social conflict.[9][10][11][12][13][14] The word sociology (or "sociologie") is derived from the Latin: socius, "companion"; ology, "the study of", andGreek , lgos, "word", "knowledge". It was first coined in 1780 by the French essayist Emmanuel-Joseph Sieys (17481836) in an unpublished manuscript.[15] Sociology was later defined independently by the French philosopher of science, Auguste Comte (17981857), in 1838.[16] Comte had earlier used the term "social physics", but that had subsequently been appropriated by others, most notably the Belgian statisticianAdolphe Quetelet. Comte endeavoured to unify history, psychology and economics through the scientific understanding of the social realm. Writing shortly after the malaise of the French Revolution, he proposed that social ills

could be remedied through sociological positivism, an epistemological approach outlined in The Course in Positive Philosophy [18301842] and A General View of Positivism (1848). Comte believed a positivist stage would mark the final era, after conjectural theological and metaphysical phases, in the progression of human understanding.[17] In observing the circular dependence of theory and observation in science, and having classified the sciences, Comte may be regarded as the first philosopher of science in the modern sense of the term.[18] Sociology involves the systematic examination of human social activity, from everyday face-to-face encounters to the movements of civilizations throughout history. Unlike disciplines that focus on a single aspect of society, sociology stresses the complex relationships governing all dimensions of social life, including the economy, state, family, religion, science, social inequality, culture and consciousness. Its inquiry is guided by several theoretical traditions and grounded in the empirical observation of social reality. Sociology emerged in the nineteenth century as a response to the massive social changes associated with the rise of modern society in England, Germany, and France. Understanding the causes and consequences of modern, industrial life has thus been the peculiar focus of the discipline. But while the experiences of modern, Western societies gave rise to formal sociological inquiry, the insights to be gained from the discipline are not limited to this realm. For example, sociology has particular relevance for understanding global change, as much of the world engages in its own process of modernization. Moreover, sociologists maintain that their perspective, as well as many of their insights, are generalizable beyond the specific historical context in which they were first conceived. Sociology is characterized as a discipline by several distinct modes of inquiry. First and foremost, sociology emphasizes human sociality as central to its pursuit. In this view, human action is to be understood within a web of social relationships and broader structures. Particular studies may focus on intimate, face-to-face interaction or on the movement of entire civilizations through history, but all sociology views human action in context. In this way, sociology distinguishes itself from psychology and some forms of political philosophy that consider the autonomous individual to be a meaningful unit of analysis. Sociology sees humans as fundamentally social. Sociological inquiry is holistic in maintaining that human action can be understood only by linking it organically to the whole of social life. Social theories are central to sociological investigation, in part, because they provide comprehensive statements regarding the connections among the various facets of social life. While particular theories may emphasize certain forces (e.g., economic, cultural) as having greater significance in shaping society, as a discipline sociology seeks to understand the relationship among these forces within social life as a whole. In this way sociology may be distinguished from disciplines like economics and political science that focus on a particular dimension of social life as the center of their inquiry. Sociological inquiry is analytical and structural. Sociology does not accept at face value

common sense understandings or publicly stated positions about society; rather, it seeks to probe beneath the surface for the actual dynamics. The political implications that particular sociologists draw from such a critical understanding may vary from conservative to radical, but critique is common to all sociological analysis. Sociology demands empirical evidence that links sociological ideas to lived experience. Sociologists employ a wide variety of techniques to collect and analyze the data of human experience, but all sociological knowledge must be grounded in some form of empirical or historical reality. In its demand for empirical foundations, sociology is appropriately regarded as a "science"--whether it is as an interpretive science concerned with meaning of social events and cultural values, as a historical science concerned with social institutions and structures, or as a positivistic science concerned with discovering explanatory laws of human behavior. Finally, sociology is a morally engaged discipline. The substance of sociological inquiry has direct relevance for ethical issues regarding the human condition. Sociologists differ in whether or not they maintain that sociological inquiry can or should serve as a basis for establishing moral truths. Nevertheless, the systematic investigation of what is in our society, particularly those aspects of society that we identify as social problems, naturally raises ethical questions about how society should be. A distinctive aspect of sociology is the study of the conflicts and contradictions between social values and ideals, on the one hand, and social structures and reality on the other. In this way, sociology provides an important bridge between the objective inquiry of the natural sciences and the morally engaged approach common to the humanities. As a discipline practiced by trained professionals, sociology breaks down into several subfields, reflecting the special interests of its practitioners. The American Sociological Association identifies several sections, many with their own publications and sessions at national professional meetings--religion, family, medical sociology, theory, an so on. Typically, upper-level courses in sociology programs are organized to reflect these interests. Cutting across these specific interests are several dimensions that distinguish a number of fundamental approaches to sociological inquiry. The first dimension distinguishes between micro and macro sociology. Many sociologists focus microscopically on questions involving individual attitudes, self image, and behavior and the intimate environments in which these characteristics are expressed. Alternatively, other sociologists focus on macroscopic issues involving large-scale, complex institutions within the structure of society. Ultimately, a comprehensive sociological understanding of any subject must connect these two analytical modes. A second distinction reflects the empirical inclinations of sociologists toward qualitative, quantitative, or historical research. Qualitative research attempts to capture the meanings people attribute to their actions in their natural context, typically through the use of techniques including participant observation and in-depth interviewing. Quantitative research may also tap these aspects of human experience, but it is

characterized by observations that can be translated into numbers and analyzed mathematically. Historical research examines the particular context of social events using historical and philosophical methods. A third dimension distinguishes sociologists on the basis of their chosen theoretical approach. Although no single theoretical tradition adequately answers all questions facing sociology, individual sociologists typically work within at least one theoretical tradition that best addresses the questions that interest them. These dimensions and the variety of particular interests that distinguish sociology are reflected in Kenyon's faculty and curriculum. This is why it is important that the student pursuing sociology as a major or minor take courses from all the faculty in the program. But beyond these differences in interest and approach, all the faculty in the program are united by a common adherence to the fundamental characteristics that define sociology as a whole.

From the Greek philo, meaning "love of," and sophia, meaning "wisdom ," philosophy is literally a love of wisdom. In practice, it is the pursuit of understanding the human condition-how, why, and what it means to exist or to be. Philosophers use methods such as observation and questioning to discern the truth. Philosophy is traditionally divided between Eastern thought and Western thought. Further, Western thought consists of five branches: metaphysics (concerned with the nature of the universe or of reality); logic (the laws of reasoning); epistemology (the nature of knowledge and the process by which knowledge is gained); ethics (the moral values or rules that influence human conduct); and aesthetics (the nature of beauty or the criteria for art). "Love of wisdom;" Greek philosophia, from philo (loving) + sophia (knowledge, wisdom).