1.2 Nature and Scope

Nature — sociology is: 1. A science — empirical (evidence from observation, survey, census, fieldwork), methodical, aiming at explanation and generalisation; but an interpretive science too, since human behaviour carries meaning (the Weber point). 2. Categorical, not (primarily) normative — it asks what is (how society works) more than what ought to be; still, no discipline is value-free in practice — a running debate you should name. 3. Both pure and applied — theory-building and problem-solving (development planning, policy design, law reform). 4. Generalising, not just particularising — from one village's water dispute to the general patterns of conflict and cooperation. Scope: everything from the dyad (two friends) to globalisation; from family, kinship and village life to state, market, religion, media and law. In the Nepali classroom the scope question has a special edge: with over 120 languages and 125 caste/ethnic groups (2011 census) in a country of about 29 million (2021 census), Nepal offers sociology micro-diversity and macro- change at once.