Sociology and other social sciences focus on the study of certain aspects of hum an behavior.

Yet human behavior is something with which we all have experience a nd about which we have at least a bit of knowledge. In our daily lives, we rely on common sense to get us through many unfamiliar situations. However, this know ledge while sometimes accurate is not always reliable because it rests on common ly held beliefs rather than systematic analysis of facts. Common sense is knowledge and awareness that is held communally (shared by major ity of people). It does not depend on specialist education and in some respects states the obvious. Sociology is study of society and of people and their behavi or. Positivists claim that it produces scientific knowledge. Many people argue that sociology merely state the obvious by reporting what comm on sense already tells us. In other words, sociology is criticized for being mer ely common sense and stating the obvious but in more detail than what we already know. Many sociologists have responded that common sense is wrong and obvious t ruths are not so obvious. Common sense ideas and explanations represent a form of social perspective since they claim to represent the things that everyone knows about the social world a nd / or human behavior. These ideas are not necessarily incorrect but they seem to be different from sociological forms of knowledge. Differences between sociology and common sense: 1. Common sense views are based on peoples immediate and often limited experience s. This leads to a distorted view of reality. Hence common sense knowledge is st atement of the obvious which is simply based of assumption. Sociological views are based on rigorous research and therefore evidence based. This can either be based on large scale quantitative research or in-depth qualit ative research. Sociology knowledge is, therefore, the product of theory develop ment and testing. 2. Common sense views tend to reflect social traditions and conventions and ther efore tend to reinforce the status quo and resist social change. Conflict approa ches in sociology raise serious questions about the status quo and call for soci al change. 3. Common sense views tend to be historically and culturally specific and are of ten based on stereotypical images. Interactionist / social action theories recog nize that social life is socially constructed and relative to time and place. It actively challenges stereotypes. 4. Common sense views lack validity and reliability. Sociological knowledge has relatively greater reliability and validity. Sociolog ical views based on quantitative data are high in reliability and those based on qualitative data are high in validity. Sociology is the scientific study of human life, social groups, whole societies a nd the human world as such...its subject matter is our own behaviour as social be ings. The scope of sociology is extremely wide, ranging from the analysis of...e ncounters between individuals...to the investigation of international relations. Sociology demonstrates the need to take a much broader view of our own lives in order to explain why we act as we do. (A. Giddens, 2009). Sociology emerged at the end of the 19th century through the work of sociologist s such as Max Weber, mile Durkheim, Georg Simmel, Robert E. Park and Albion Small . According to Jonathan H. Turner 1982, Max Weber defines sociology, as a science , which aims at the interpretative understanding of social behaviour in order to gain an explanation of its causes, its course and its effects. On the other hand, common sense refers to routine knowledge we have of our everyday world and activities. People interact with each other, they acqu ire knowledge of behaviours needed to interact with others, they acquire this kn owledge by observing others within our society, and it could be argued that peop le do what they do because they have observed such behaviours from others. Diffe rent sociological approaches adopt different attitudes to common sense knowledge . According to G. Marshall 1998, the idea of common sense originated from Alfr ed Schutz s phenomenological sociology. Schutz s suggests that common sense refe rs to organized typified stocks of taken-for-granted knowledge, upon which our acti

vities are based, and which, in the natural attitude, we do not question. The following essay will assess how sociological thinking differs from common sense. This essay will examine the views of sociologists on sociological theory and common sense, and why sociologists may challenge the idea of common sense. Sociologists often challenge the idea of common-sense. Our everyday lives are le d by incoherent, indescribable knowledge otherwise known as common-sense. Sociol ogists regard common sense as a problem even though other sciences may not even acknowledge that it exists. The main reason for such interest in the matter of common sense is because all sociological findings are based on experiences of n ormal people in their everyday lives. Sociologists challenge the assumptions of common sense by using cross- cultural and historical research to see whether these assumptions have always been the wa y they are and whether the assumptions of common sense and belies are the same i n ever country. What sociologists usually discover from their research is that d ifferent societies hold different ideas of what is natural, for example, the belief that everybody grows up, falls in love, then marry it is a norm in some countri es, for marriages to be arranged, thus or couples to fall in love after this pro cess. Sociologists also find that things regarded as natural these days were not r egarded as so in the past. mile Durkheim, a French sociologist, best known for being one of the founders of the academic discipline of sociology, along with Karl Marx and Max W eber, is commonly cited as the principal architect of modern social science. Arg ued that society conflicts with common sense, he said that society is real: we te nd to think that ... The individual is real and that society is no more than wha t individuals do together. (A, Roberts. 1997). Durkheim believed that society dif fers from common sense. He claimed that society puts individuals together and sh apes us. We learn from the others, not from our common sense. For example, Durkh eim compared society to a dance. He argued that a dance has a set form that need s to be followed which shapes the dancers. Only because the dance exists are any of us able to modify the dance or create new dances. We tend to think of ourselv es as constructing the dance. Durkheim thinks of us as born into the dance and c onstructed by it. It is only because the dance exists that we can modify it. Zygmunt Bauman is a sociologist from Poland, best known for his anal yses of the links between modernity and the Holocaust, and of postmodern consume rism. Bauman, very much like Durkheim, claims that sociology is different from c ommon sense. Bauman suggested two main reasons why sociological thinking differs from common sense. To start with, Bauman argued that sociology (unlike common se nse) makes an effort to subordinate itself to the rigorous rules of responsible s peech, which is assumed to be an attribute of science. This means that sociologist s use scientific methods and facts to distinguish what is true or false in a cle ar fashion which is visible and understandable to anybody. However, common sense is not scientific; common sense is a mere proposition which can only claim to b e provisional and an untested guess. The second reason why sociological thinking differs from common sense is the size of the field from which the material for judgement is drawn. For most of us, as n onprofessionals, such a field is confined to our own life/world: things we do, pe ople we meet, purposes we set for our own pursuits and guess other people set fo r theirs and yet, given the tremendous variety of lifeconditions, each experience based solely on an individual lifeworld is necessarily partial and most likely o nesided. It is for this reason that the sociologists pursuit of a perspective wide r than the one offered by an individual life/world makes a great difference not just a quantitative difference (more data, more facts, statistics instead of sin gle cases), but a difference in the quality and the uses of knowledge. To conclude this argument, sociological thinking differs from common sense this is supported by the sociologists who have been mentioned in the prev ious paragraphs. Sociologists help us to understand ourselves from a more scient ific and a social side. Sociology helps us to understand how our experience affe cts others around us. Thinking sociologically allows us to see things more clear ly and with an open mind. Sociology is important in many ways; it critically exa

mines problems and controversies and deals with central issues in lives. Sociolo gy, unlike common sense, is not irrational and is based on scientific fact/resea rch, not assumptions or opinions. Both Durkheim and Bauman would argue that, Com mon sense is based on peoples limited experiences which often lead to a distorted view of reality. For example, people may perceive that theft is on the rise bas ed on their own experiences. Common sense also lacks validity and reliability as it is not a scientific approach. Therefore, Sociology helps to bring issues i nto a sharper focus, which enables us to have a much clearer understanding of th e world around us and the society that we live in.