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The Social Sciences are the concept that brings together those disciplines dedicated to the study of human beings and their social and cultural behavior, such as history, anthropology, economics, geography.
Generically defining the word “science” is a very complex task since it brings together a multitude of very different scientific disciplines. Science is defined as the “body of knowledge obtained through observation and reasoning, systematically structured and from which general laws with predictive and experimentally verifiable capacity are deduced”. In other words, science is dedicated to the study of natural and social phenomena, from which it extracts knowledge that must be organized and systematized in order to obtain hypotheses, theories or laws.
There is a classification that generically groups the different scientific disciplines.
Formal sciences
These are sciences that establish logical reasoning and ideas created with the help of the intellect. They have as their source of study abstract concepts that can be applied to reality. They are sciences such as Mathematics, Statistics, Logic.
Natural sciences
Sciences whose purpose is the study of nature. The study of these questions requires observation and experimentation on the object of study. Chemistry, astronomy, biology, physics and geology are part of the natural sciences.
Natural sciences
Under the name of “social sciences” are gathered those disciplines that deal with the study of those aspects related to human behavior, especially culture and society. Social sciences include history, anthropology, sociology, demography, among others.
Concept, classification and development
The desire to establish and classify the disciplines and fields of study related to the social sphere is a question that arose in the 19th century. It arose from the need to systematize and give a name to those disciplines that could not be included within the natural sciences. This is how the term “Social Sciences” came about, which are those that are dedicated to the study of human beings and their social environment and which, up to that time, had been defined as humanities, literature, arts… but had never been given a scientific character.
For this enterprise, scholars such as Auguste Comte resorted to the already established model and sought to apply the same model to the new science. That is, they tried to transfer the same model from the natural sciences to the social sciences in order to obtain objective scientific knowledge, albeit within a social setting. However, these new disciplines cannot be analyzed by means of the same mechanisms as the natural sciences, since the field of study is not the same. The social sciences must be studied and analyzed by means of particular and specific processes. However, in the same way, the objective is scientific knowledge, since it should not be forgotten that it is a science.
But how might the social sciences be defined? The National Science Foundation says of the social sciences that they “are intellectual disciplines that study man as a social being by means of the scientific method. It is their focus on man as a member of society and on the groups and societies that form it that distinguishes the social sciences from the physical and biological sciences.” At the beginning of the 20th century it was established that the social sciences were made up of disciplines such as history, economics, sociology, political science and anthropology. Later, psychology and demography were also included.
History
It is the social science dedicated to the study of the events of the past of humanity. Using historiography as a method and technique, it is dedicated to describe and narrate the historical facts of the past. The results of research must be subjected to a process of analysis, following the scientific method in order to obtain objective knowledge as a result.
Historical research often draws on other disciplines (whether in the scientific or natural realm) as history takes place in a place (geography), people with ideology (anthropology) who lived with animals (anthropology or zoology). Conducting historical research is therefore a multidisciplinary task. Other sciences such as prehistory or archaeology can be found within history.
Anthropology
It is the science dedicated to the study of human beings and their behavior within a cultural and social context. It is dedicated to analyzing the behaviors of human beings over time, how their cultures evolve, their relationship with the environment, cultural manifestations, etc.
In short, it focuses on the investigation and analysis of human beings in all their aspects, whether biological or sociocultural. In this way, anthropology can be divided, in turn, into two branches according to the field of study: biological or physical anthropology and sociocultural anthropology. Each of these is composed of other disciplines.
Geography
It is the discipline that deals with the study of the characteristics of the earth: places, landscapes, territories and the relationships of these aspects with the societies that inhabit it. A division can be established within Geography:
- Physical geography: dedicated to the study of the environment.
- Human geography: dedicated to the study of societies and populations.
Ethnology
It could be considered a discipline within anthropology. Ethnology systematically compares and studies the ethnicities and cultures of ancient and present-day peoples in aspects such as religion, customs, culture, political and economic systems, symbolic expression, etc.
Economy
It is considered a social science because it is responsible for analyzing the behavior of men in an economic environment. It studies the methods of production of resources and the distribution and consumption of goods and services by human beings.
Sociology
“It is the science that deals with the structure and functioning of human societies”. In other words, sociology is dedicated to the study of human behavior within society and within a given temporal, geographical and cultural context, and common among the members of the same social group. Sociology studies the family, religion, companies, educational institutions, etc. But also behaviors that characterize societies such as beliefs, values, cultural manifestations, criminality, and how these aspects affect and condition people. Sociology is a science that deals with very broad and disparate topics, so different methods are used to obtain scientific knowledge.
Political science
Also known as political science. It is the social discipline dedicated to the analysis and theoretical and practical study of politics, political systems and social aspects related to politics. It studies the democratic or autarchic system, but also how these systems influence the different agents of society as well as the political actors.
Demographics
It is the science that studies, through statistics, human populations and their distribution. Also the population changes that occur in a given space of time and a given place as a result of migration or birth and death rates.
Psychology
Psychology is the science dedicated to the study of human behavior and mental behavior in relation to the physical and social environment. Psychology can study the behaviors of a specific individual, but also of a human group. It analyzes a multitude of aspects and functions such as memory, intelligence, learning, sexuality, perception. Psychology is a very broad field that can be divided into many branches depending on the object of study. This is the case of social psychology, clinical psychology, forensic psychology and sexology.
Linguistics
It is the social science dedicated to the study of languages and human language. It investigates the origin, evolution and structure of language in order to know the laws that govern languages, both ancient and modern.
Epistemological issues
Epistemology is the doctrine that has as its source of study the knowledge and means of scientific knowledge.
The task of defining the term Social Sciences requires first taking into account that this concept is made up of many different sciences. The social sciences are, as mentioned above, the set of disciplines whose purpose is to study all aspects of human beings and their society. The breadth of the term and of the sciences that make it up has led to the emergence of other terms or concepts that are close in terms of general definition. However, they are more specific or concrete in terms of the sciences that could integrate them. This is the case of Human Sciences, Sciences of Man, Social Science, Cultural Science. But do they all refer to the same thing?
The use of one term or another depends on the author consulted. While some scholars consider that all the terms refer to the same issue, others establish differences. Regarding the first of the cases, the one that considers any of these terms as synonymous with social sciences, Piaget could be mentioned as an example. He states that “it would not be possible to maintain any distinction of nature between what are often called ‘social sciences’ and the so-called ‘human sciences,’ since it is evident that social phenomena depend on all the characters of man. Here psychophysiological processes are included. Moreover, reciprocally, the human sciences are all those which are social in one or other of their aspects”.
Piaget affirms that human sciences and social sciences are terms that are practically synonymous because the social is the product of human actions and, therefore, one cannot be separated from the other by establishing independent disciplines in each of them.
Purpose of the general study
The general purpose of the Social Sciences is to study the human being and his behavior with other individuals. Man is the protagonist of the study and research of those disciplines that are considered part of the Social Sciences. These social disciplines have as their objective the global knowledge of man in all his historical and geographical extension. While the Natural Sciences have as their object of study all the elements that form part of nature, the Social Sciences direct their attention towards man. The human being is a participant in a society in which he grows, develops and relates.
These sciences also teach a series of values. As is evident, each society has a series of values that must be respected in order to guarantee a peaceful life in common. The study and understanding of these values makes it easier for the student to apply them to his daily life, thus favoring the creation of a stable and cohesive society.
In this sense, transmitting values in the Social Sciences is not synonymous with moralizing or imposing them on students. The process of learning values is a consequence of learning one’s own knowledge, so that one aspect can be separated from the other. These learnings must be extracted from the contents after submitting them to a rational and critical analysis that makes the teacher understand the importance of maintaining or creating a balanced society.
This society must be able to adapt favorably to possible future changes that may occur thanks to the fact that all members of the society have acquired a series of values such as respect, equality, justice, understanding of differences, democracy… All of them are put into practice in the daily development of life. In short, showing full respect for Human Rights guarantees the proper functioning of societies and this must be taught and learned through the Social Sciences.
General and specific study
The social sciences aim to investigate the human being as a whole. These behaviors and different anthropological approaches require early teaching in schools. Due to the importance of these fundamentals, TECH Technological University offers multiple postgraduate programs focused on the teaching of this varied knowledge.
Some examples of this objective of the institution are the Master’s Degree in Didactics of History and Geography in Secondary and High School and the Master’s Degree in Didactics of Political Science, Geography and World History in Secondary.
Likewise, the Master’s Degree in Didactics of Geography and History for Primary School aims to investigate the human being as a whole and this requires a knowledge that is configured by many other knowledge arising from the different disciplines that make up the Social Sciences: Geography, History, Politics, Economics, Anthropology, Demography, Sociology, etc..
