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Sociology

Sociology
Empiricism is a theory of knowledge which asserts that knowledge arises from experience.
Critical theory is a social theory oriented toward critiquing and changing society as a whole, in contrast to traditional theory oriented only to understanding or explaining it.
Sociology is a broad discipline in terms of both methodology and subject matter. Its traditional focuses have included
social relations,
social stratification,
social interaction,
religion,
culture and deviance,
and its approaches have included both qualitative and quantitative research techniques.
Social interactions can be differentiated into:
Accidental (also known as social contact) - not planned and likely not repeated. For example, asking a stranger for directions or shopkeeper for product availability.
Repeated - not planned, bound to happen from time to time. For example, accidentally meeting a neighbor when walking on your street;
Regular - not planned, but very common, likely to raise questions when missed. Meeting a doorman or a security guard every workday in your workplace, dining every day in the same restaurant, etc.
The word "culture" is most commonly used in three basic senses:
excellence of taste in the fine arts and humanities, also known as high culture
an integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends upon the capacity for symbolic thought and social learning
Classical theorists of sociology from the late 19th and early 20th centuries
Alexis de Tocqueville, Vilfredo Pareto, Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Ludwig Gumplowicz, Ferdinand Tönnies, Thorstein Veblen, Herbert Spencer, Georg Simmel, George Herbert Mead, Werner Sombart, Max Weber, György Lukács, Antonio Gramsci, W. E. B. Du Bois, Walter Benjamin, Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, and C. Wright Mills....