 Dear students, in this module, we are going to talk about what is sociology. So we will discuss its about its definition and about its subject matter. So keeping in view sociology is formal definition. It's the scientific study of society and human behavior. It seeks to understand the patterns and dynamics of social interaction. It explores how social structures and institutions shape our lives and identities. So when we talk about sociology, we talk about the environment of our religion, we talk about the traditions of the people. And we see how people have a relationship with each other, what are the patterns of their interaction, and what are the traditions of their religions. So sociology talks about the environment of our religion and the society of our religion. So it also helps us to question and challenge the assumptions about the word around us. This means that we take many things for granted, we have no idea and in our society, the things that we are learning from childhood, we think that maybe this is the right thing. But a sociologist who observes things in detail, observes and sees how our traditions are scientifically understandable. So when we talk about sociology, we actually talk about an asset discipline in which we can't typically take things for granted, which is part of our education. Maybe some of them are wrong, many things are right, we don't know them properly, because we are looking at things from our point of view. Sociology is considered an objective study of society. By objectivity, we mean to say that we can separate ourselves from things, and look at the traditions of our religion, and understand them. So it provides us with the tools to analyze and interpret the social phenomena. The way different natural scientists study things empirically in laboratories or physical world, they don't let their personal biases and prejudices get involved in it, and draw conclusions from it based on objective observation. Similarly, the social scientists, particularly sociologists, try to understand the environment of their society, or the traditions, and objectively understand the traditions. So sociology can be used to address the social issues and promote social change. In a way, our goal is the betterment of society. So for betterment, we see that when we start doing something in our own way, try to understand the society, or try to understand the same things, then the solution that we have proposed should not sit properly in that context, it should be beneficial for a few people, and it should be beneficial for a lot of people. So in a way, it helps us to understand a broader picture, which can later on help us in policy making or policy formulation. And it is a broad and diverse field that covers a range of topics and approaches. It is not limited to the micro level, it doesn't study two individuals, but it studies on the macro level as well. For example, how is the relationship between two countries with each other? The larger groups or communities interact with each other in this way. So sociology is relevant to our everyday lives and the word we live in. This means that not only does it help us to understand the environment, but larger societies and globally speaking, it also helps us to understand the interaction between many societies.