Sociology as a Complex Organism

The term “sociology” is associated with Auguste Comte who is believed to be its father. In his opinion, sociology’s aim is to integrate all the knowledge of a society as of a unique mechanism and support it with scientific foundation. As a result, sociology became a science which showed a higher interest in social processes. Namely, this is a discipline which deals with processes of civil society development. One of the key components of sociology is the adoption of human rights and freedoms, spiritual and economic independence of citizens. Knowledge of the basics of the life of a human community, social processes and phenomena led to the extensive implementation of acquired rights and freedoms.

Under the sociological imagination, one can understand a skill or ability to see a society from a certain angle. This skill has five components: (a) to consider all social phenomena as a result of the social agents, and to identify them, (b) to understand the hidden behind the surface of phenomena and constraints affecting social life; in other words, in order to capture the invisible social structure, people need to patiently develop a sociological view of a society, (c) to study the earlier tradition, the living heritage of the past, and its impact on a society, (d) to perceive social life in its dynamic ever-changing process of formation, (d) to recognize a huge variety of options and forms of a social life. In other words, a sociological imagination comes from the recognition of the diversity and multiplicity of social institutions and the ability to connect any event in the community with the structural, cultural, and historical contexts as well as individual and collective actions of the members of the society.

Sociology interprets a society public life not as something abstract, but as something real. Here lies the main difference between social and personal issues – people see personal things as real since they are close to them while social aspect seems to be far-fetched. Sociology presents a certain type of knowledge about the society which is closely connected with the depths of social philosophy. Simultaneously, sociology tries to omit and solve any limitations which are found in the analysis of social phenomena. Science aims to help people to understand the complex problems of life. On the one hand, people always deal with issues connected to humans: either on a social or on a personal scale. The difference is that socially people have a global view with greater abilities to change and transform something.

Finally, among four social theories, functionalism proves to be the most practical one since it deals with two aspects: it examines any social phenomenon as a simple small thing which, accordingly, becomes a part of a big mechanism. In other words, this method successfully interprets and analyzes any social action by dividing it into two parts: smaller and global one. In conclusion, sociology is a perplexed science in which different notions and phenomena are interwoven creating a big organism called a human society.