Sociology is defined as the scientific study of society and human behavior. Sociology looks for reasons for things, and answers the social questions. Sociology is a science, and people need to come up with theories, which may be tested to be proven, or disproven. The first people to realize this fact, and prove their theories were the Europeans in the nineteenth century.
Common sense though, is the ideas that people know, just because it is common knowledge. However, common sense, and what people think they know is not always true.
Common sense as people see it as true facts, it is just looked at to be true. Sociologists do research to find out what really is the truth, and sometimes, their findings reveal that the reality of a situation is the exact opposite of the common sense view. Common sense is merely assumed information, while sociology uses detailed research to come up with findings that it does. Many ideas that people believe to be true have been proven false when placed under a sociologists research. Such as, the idea that the higher the percentage of alcoholics there will be population who drink alcohol, the higher the percentage of alcoholics there will be in the population. This has been proven wrong by sociologists saying many cultures have high consumption of alcohol, but do not have higher alcoholism rates.
Common sense has a long history, dating back to when sociology first arrived in the world. People in ancient civilizations often wondered about different ways of the world and how society worked. However, in those times, when research was out of question, these people looked into myths, and gods, and sometimes astrology, which helped lead to common sense. This seems to be the beginning of people knowing something just because everyone believes it to be true.
These situations show that common sense can be occasionally stereotypical.
