Historical Perspective of Sociology
toward understanding the definition of Sociology — All inquiries were once a part of philosophy, that great mother of the sciences, and philosophy embraced them all in an undifferentiated and amorphous fashion. One by one, however, with the growth of Western civilization, the various sciences Cut the apron strings, as it were, and began to pursue separate and independent courses. Astronomy and physics were among the first to break away, and were followed thereafter by chemistry, biology, and geology. In the nineteenth century two new sciences appeared: psychology or the science of human behaviour; and sociology j or the science of human behaviour; and sociology, or the science of human society. Thus, what had once been cosmology, a subdivision of philosophy, became astronomy; what had once been natural philosophy became the science of physics; what had once been mental philosophy, became the science of psychology; and what had once been social philosophy, became the science of sociology. In the nineteenth century a.French philosopher named Auguste Cornte worked out, in a series of books, a general approach to the study of society and recommended that the study of society become the science of society .
“Sociology” is composed of two words: Socius , . (Latin word) meaning companion or associate; and logos , (Greek word) meaning word. In the latter half of the Century, Herbert Spencer adopted the word “sociology” in the title of his work .
