Essay on Relationship Between Sociology and Other Social Sciences – Social Sciences deal with the social universe or phenomena in general.
They deal with forms and contents of man’s interaction. They study human groups, society and social environment. The social phenomena which they study are as natural as the phenomena of magnetism, gravitation and electricity, and a modern city is as natural as an ocean.
Different social sciences deal with the different aspects of the social life of man. Accordingly, History, Anthropology, Social Psychology, Economics, Political Science, etc. study the various facets of the same reality, i.e. the social milieu. Naturally, these social sciences are then very much interrelated.
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Sociology, as social science, has joined the family of social sciences very recently. It was born at a time when there was no other social science to study the human society in its entirety with all its complexity.
It is essential for a student of sociology to know in what respect his subject differs from the other social sciences and in what ways it is related to them. However, this is not an easy task. It is more difficult to distinguish sociology from the various social sciences, because the same content or area of investigation is sometimes studied by different social sciences with different degrees of emphasis.
Further, some of the relationships between sociology and other social sciences have been matters of controversy. For example, there are some thinkers, like Comte, Spencer, Hobhouse, who would say that sociology is the basic or the sole social science and all the others are its subdivisions.
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There are others like Giddings who would argue that sociology is not the ‘sole’ science, not the mother of other social sciences, but only their common sister. Some others regard sociology as a specialised science of social phenomena; as specialised in its interests as are economics and political science.
Again, some sociologists profess to see the closest relations between sociology and psychology on the one hand, and sociology and anthropology on the other. Still some others say that sociology and history are more interrelated than others.
In the field of social sciences interdisciplinary approach is gaining more currency today. Understanding of one social science requires some around of understanding of the other. Further, sociology as a young science, has borrowed many things from other sciences.
In return, it has enriched other sciences by its highly useful sociological knowledge. In this context, it becomes essential for us to know the interrelation between sociology and history, economics, political science, anthropology, social psychology and education.