Part I. Independent sciences Unit 1. Social science

1. Practise reading the following proper names.

Auguste Comte /aʊˈɡuːst kɒmt/

Jean Jacques Rousseau /ʒan ˈʒaːk ˈrusəʊ/

Thomas Hobbes /ˈtɒməs ˈhɒbz/

Sigmund Freud /ˈziːkmʊnt ˈfrɔɪd/

Albert Einstein /ˈælbərt ˈaɪnstaɪn/

Émile Durkheim /eɪˈmɪlˈdəːkhʌɪm/

Niccolò Machiavelli /nikkoˌlɔ makjaˈvɛlli/

Erick Erickson /ˈɛrɪkˈɛrɪks(ə)n/

Adam Smith /ˈæd.əm ˈsmɪθ/

2. Read the quotes and discuss the questions below.

*Appendix 3 p. 153

• “Man, the molecule of society, is the subject of social science.” (Henry Charles Carey)

• “The fundamental concept in social science is Power, in the same sense in which Energy is the fundamental concept in physics.” (Bertrand Russell)

- What is social science?

- What does it deal with?

- What disciplines it may include?

3. Read the text again and answer the following questions.

1. When did the term social science originate?

2. Whose theories affected Auguste Comte’s ideas about society?

3. What does social science focus on?

4. Why is social science often referred to as ‘soft science’? How does it differ from the so called ‘hard science’?

5. What are the main branches of social science?

6. Name outstanding social scientists whose works are still of great importance.

7. Why do ethical and moral issues play an important role in the study of society?

Text a. What is social science?

Social science is a group of academic disciplines that investigate how and why people behave the way they do, as individuals and in groups. The term social science originated with 19^th-century French thinker Auguste Comte.

Western thought about society has been influenced by the ideas and insights of great theorists such as Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle; Italian Niccolò Machiavelli; Frenchman Jean Jacques Rousseau; and Englishmen Thomas Hobbes and John Locke. The study of society, however, can be traced to the great intellectual period of the 18^th century called the Age of Enlightenment, to the industrial and political revolutions of the 18^th and 19^th centuries, and to the moral philosophy of positivism (emphasis on realism and scientific investigation). Comte attempted to establish the study of society as a scientific discipline, capable of precision and prediction in the same way as natural science, but social sciences overlap extensively with subject areas such as geography, philosophy, and biology. Although some thinkers - such as Karl Marx of Germany - have attempted to synthesise the study of society within one theory, none has yet achieved what Albert Einstein did for physics or Charles Darwin for biology. A current debate is whether the study of people can or should be a science.

When examining the social sciences, a basic definition, or broad view, that can be used to describe them and their practices is an “understanding of other people and society” (Webb). In other words the social sciences centre on the study of humans and society and aim to “explain and understand social phenomena” (Sayer).

Social science concerns itself with human aspects of the world, like the arts and humanities, although social science places more effort on experimentation and the scientific method. Because the methods used the social sciences are often qualitative and based more on personal interpretation, they are often referred to as the “soft sciences” in contrast to the “hard” natural and formal sciences. The social sciences include anthropology, economics, education, geography, history, law, linguistics, political science, psychology, sociology, communication studies, development studies, information science, and sociobiology.

This broadness is one aspect of the social sciences which is much criticised, especially when it comes to defining all encompassing rules, methods, theories and practices. Perhaps it is just the case that social science cannot be defined and that each topic, sub-topic and individual professor should work and live by their own definitions based on personal academic research and knowledge. What is social science? Many things.

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. Among those that are still read by more than one social science branch are Adam Smith, John Locke, Sigmund Freud, Karl Marx, Émile Durkheim, and Erick Erickson, to name only a few.

Throughout social science’s history, ethical as well as moral considerations have played an important and interesting role in shaping types of studies and areas of inquiry. It is this ethical and moral dimension that to a degree sets the social sciences apart from the natural sciences. With its main area of inquiry being the human animal, it has long been recognised that social science, if misused, poses a certain level of danger.

While they are rare, there have been social scientific studies that were physically or emotionally harmful to the individuals under study. Another ethical issue confronted by social scientists concerns the use of scientific evidence to further dangerous or prejudiced ideologies, and the ways in which such ideologies can shape research results. Social scientists must also consider who will use their findings and the manner in which the findings will be used - especially when utilised by government and military institutions. While social science can provide much insight useful for the formulation of beneficial public policy, it also has the potential to be utilised in unethical ways.