An eclectic and sometimes polarizing term, social science is a broad umbrella
linking multiple fields, with contention regarding which fields should be included under
its purview. Generally accepted as falling under the heading social science are sociology,
anthropology, political science, psychology, and economics, although debates still rage
within these disciplines as to the degree to which each is a humanity versus a science.
Disciplines such as history and linguistics, while still addressing social life, are less often
included as social sciences. In general, social science can be regarded as the scientific
method’s application to all things social. It should be noted, however, that most social
sciences manifest, to a greater or lesser degree, a humanities emphasis as well as a
scientific one.
There is still some debate regarding the use of the term social science, with
criticism generally aimed at the word science. Traditionally, the natural sciences, or “hard
sciences,” have been characterized by the use of the scientific method, which involves
generating testable hypotheses in order to predict future outcomes and the ability to falsify
these hypotheses. When applied to the natural world, the scientific method allows for high
degrees of predictability, due to science’s ability to recognize and understand universal
laws governing empirical reality. When applied to the social world, however, comparable
levels of prediction and discoveries of analogous universal laws governing human
behaviour have proven to be more allusive. Due to the social sciences’ limited success in
employing the scientific method, they are often referred to as the “soft sciences.”
No definitive date can be given for the birth of social science—its emergence is
in fact due to a large number of circumstances spanning centuries and some of its
rudimentary ideas can be traced to multiple origins, some dating as far back as Plato. It is
generally accepted that an important era in the emergence of contemporary social science
began with the Enlightenment and its emphasis on rationality, logic, and methodology as
applied to the empirical world. There are scholars, however, such as Lynn McDonald,
who contend that the foundation of social science should be traced back to the sixth
century (McDonald 1993). Maurice Duverger (1961) has argued that the social sciences,
despite early roots in Grecian inquiries into the nature of man, did not emerge as a distinct
form of research until the eighteenth century, when social philosophy bearing a
“philosophical attitude” gave way to a new scientific emphasis. This shift from social
philosophy to social science was given impetus by the emergence of positivism as a
widely accepted mode of knowledge. First articulated by August Comte and best
described in his 1848 work A General View of Positivism, positivism moved almost
entirely away from metaphysical speculation and instead focused on the scientific
method’s ability to produce facts and falsifiable statements about the empirical world.
At first, much of this new scientific inquiry focused nearly exclusively on the natural
world. Great gains were made in physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy, and other fields
dealing with the natural environment. It was not long, however, before the methods
employed to achieve these gains were utilized in attempts to describe, explain, and predict
human behaviour. Hewing closely to positivism’s tenets, the social sciences sought to
discover laws governing the social realm—in effect, laws that allow the predictability of
human interaction. Subsequent years have shown just how elusive are the levels of
predictability and precision found in the natural sciences when sought in the social sphere.
Differing perspectives on how social scientific inquiry should be applied and what
it should be applied to led to the advent of several branches of social science, which,
however, display greatly overlapping interests and methods and share a number of major
thinkers in common.
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