• Social Sciences deal with the social universe or phenomena, focusing on human interaction, groups, society, and the social environment.
• Social phenomena are as natural as magnetism, gravitation, and electricity.
• A modern city is considered as natural as an ocean in the context of social sciences.
• Different social sciences study various aspects of the same reality, i.e., the social milieu.
• History, Anthropology, Social Psychology, Economics, Political Science, etc., focus on different facets of social life.
• These social sciences are interrelated, and Sociology joined this family recently.
• Sociology emerged at a time when no other social science existed to study human society in its entirety.
• A student of sociology needs to understand how it differs from and relates to other social sciences.
• It is difficult to distinguish sociology from other social sciences as they often study the same content with different emphases.
• Some thinkers, like Comte, Spencer, and Hobhouse, argue that sociology is the basic or sole social science, with others being subdivisions.
• Thinkers like Giddings view sociology as a common sister to other social sciences, not the sole or mother science.
• Some regard sociology as a specialized science of social phenomena, akin to economics and political science.
• Certain sociologists emphasize the close relationship between sociology and psychology, and between sociology and anthropology.
• Others suggest that sociology is more interrelated with history than with other social sciences.
• The interdisciplinary approach is gaining currency in social sciences today.
• Understanding one social science requires some understanding of others.
• As a young science, sociology has borrowed from other sciences and enriched them with sociological knowledge.
• It is essential to understand the interrelation between sociology and history, economics, political science, anthropology, social psychology, and education.

SOCIOLOGY AND HISTORY

• Sociology and History are closely interrelated, with some writers, like G. Von Bulow, refusing to separate sociology from history.
• History is the reconstruction of humanity’s past, focusing on events and achievements over time.
• It provides a systematic record of human life from the past to the present.
• Historians study significant events in chronological order, focusing on what happened at a specific time.
• A historian goes beyond description and seeks to understand the causes of events and how they came to be.
• Historians are interested in the past for its own sake, wanting to know everything about these events and describe their unique individuality.
• Historians concentrate only on the past, not interested in the present or future.
• However, history connects the past, present, and future, often described as a microscope of the past, horoscope of the present, and telescope of the future.
• Sociology, in contrast, focuses on the present, analyzing human interactions and interrelations with complexity and diversity.
• Sociology also studies the historical development of societies, stages of human life, customs, manners, and expressions through social institutions and associations.
• Sociology depends on history for material, as history provides data and facts that sociologists use for analysis.