Essay on Sociology and Social Thought – The terms such as “social thought”, “sociology” or “sociological thought” or “social theory”, “sociological theory” though are not one and the same, are closely interrelated. It is true that roots of sociology are to be found in social thought and social philosophy. Social thought itself provided the stimulus for the establishment of sociology.
Further, the pioneers of sociology, like Comte, Durkhiem, Spencer, Weber, Marx and others were more recognised during their lifetime as social thinkers than as sociologists. In spite of the affinity between social thought and sociology or sociological thought they are not one and the same. The main differences between the two can be briefly examined here.
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1. Sociology and Social Thought: Difference in Meaning:
“Sociology” is the science of society. Its main purpose is to study human life, activities and relations in a scientific way. It is an independent science by itself and applies scientific method to its studies.
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Whereas social thought is nothing but societal-thought; it is the totality of man’s thought about his relationships with his fellowmen. According to Bogardus, it is co-equal with social problems. As and when social problems cropped up, the social thought sprang up. Social thought is a kind of thought and it need not necessarily be classical or systematic in its nature.
2. Sociological Study is more scientific whereas Social Thought is more general in Nature:
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Sociology has become a relatively well established social science. It is able to make a scientific analysis of human society, its structure, function, organisation, institutional network, changes, challenges, problems and so on. Sociology is now recognised as an empirical and a rational science. It tries to be “value-free” in its approach and objective in its findings.
Social thought, on the contrary, is bound by the values, norms and the expectations of the people of a particular epoch. There is no insistence on it to be scientific. Plato’s “idealism”, Hindus’ concept of “Rama Rajya”, Marx’s “Communism”, Bentham’s “Utilitarianism” or Gandhiji’s “Sarvodaya”, etc. for example, represent high thoughts, but they are not considered as scientific.
They are either regarded as value-based or imaginary or even ideological. Social thought is more based on logic, imagination, intuition, and capacity of creative thinking, whereas sociology is based on science, rationality, empiricism and reality.
3. Sociology has a Limited Range while Social Thought is More Pervasive:
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Sociological thoughts or theories have limited range. They are applicable to limited contexts. They contain issues or themes which are basically social in nature. On the contrary, the scope of social thought is wider. It is all-inclusive, because it may incorporate in itself knowledge that is not only social but also spiritual, moral, political, economic, psychological, philosophical, and so on.
4. Social Thought is Ancient Whereas Sociology is Modern:
Social thought is old when compared with either sociology or sociological thought. The history of social thought is very ancient and it begins from pre-historic times, whereas the history of sociology and sociological thought is very short; it begins from the time of Auguste Comte.
5. Other Differences:
(a) Social thought adopts no scientific criterion of validity whereas in the case of sociology or sociological thought there is definite validity criterion.
(b) Only the people with specialised skills and training can make contributions to the realm of sociology whereas, any knowledgeable person whether he is a scientist or an artist, a philosopher or a social reformer, a psychologist or an educationist, an uneducated man or an educated one, an ordinary man or a genius, can enrich the field of social thought.
(c) Thinkers who contributed to the realm of social thought were known as social reformers, social philosophers, social visionaries, social revolutionaries and so on, but not as sociologists. The era of sociology and sociologists began only in the middle of the 18th century.
George Ritzer thus writes: “In any case, none of the thinkers associated with those eras thought of themselves, and few are now thought of, as sociologists… It is only in the middle and late 1800s that we begin to find thinkers who can be clearly identified as sociologists.”