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[German Version] I. Definition Sociology is an empirical social science; its field of study encompasses the relatively enduring forms and structures of social action (Action, Science of ) and the resultant social units, from entities like the family and kinship group and social groups to large-scale organizations and states. The word itself is an artificial combination of Latin socius (“companion, fellow”) and Greek logos (“word, truth,” in an extended sense “knowledge”). It appears for the first time in vol. IV of the Cours de philosophie positive of A. Comte (1838). As a science, sociology includes both general sociology with its study of concepts and theories, including theories about the causes and forms of social change, and special sociologies, such as the sociology of work (Labor) and vocation, family and town and city, as well as religion (Sociology of religion), in which sociology is applied to specific areas. Bernhard Schäfers Bibliography É. Durkheim, Les règles de la méthode sociolo…