MISAMIS ORIENTAL INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Sta. Cruz, Cogon, Balingasag Misamis Oriental

DISCIPLINES AND IDEAS IN SOCIAL SCIENCE

Module 2 - SOCIAL SCIENCE

Definition
 The scientific study of human society and social relationship.
 A major category of academic disciplines, concerned with society and the
relationships among individuals within the society.

History of Social Science

 The history of social sciences begins in the Age of Enlightenment after 1650.
 The social sciences developed from the science (experimental and applied), or
systematic knowledge-bases or prescriptive practices, relating to the social
improvement of a group of interacting entities.
 Social science influence by positivism. Auguste Comte used the term “science
sociale” to describe the field, taken from the ideas of Charles Fourier; Comte
also referred to the field as social physics
 The term social science may refer either to the specific sciences of society
established by thinkers such as Comte, Durkhiem, Marx, and Weber or more
generally to all disciplines outside of “noble science” and arts.

Humanities
Are academic disciplines that study the human condition, using methods that
are primary analytical, critical or speculative. (Ancient and modern languages,
visual and performing arts, theatre arts, literature, history, philosophy religion)

Natural Science
A branch of science that seeks to elucidate the rules that govern the natural
world by using the empirical and scientific method. (physics, chemistry, biology,
earth science).

THE DICIPLINES IN SOCIAL SCIENCE

ATHROPOLOGY
 Is the study of humans, past and present
 Its present use first appeared in Renaissance Germany in the work of
Magnus Hundt and Otto Casmann
 Their new New Latin anthopologia derived from the combining forms of the
Greek words anthropos (‘human’) and logos (‘study’)

ECONOMICS
 It’s the study of scarcity, the study of how people use resources, or the study of
decision-making.
 The discipline was renamed in the late 19th century primarily due to Alfred
Marshall from “political economy” to “economics” as a shorter term for economic
science.
 Two groups, later called mercantilist and physiocrats more directly influenced
the subsequent development of the subject.
 Adam Smith is widely regarded as the father of modern economics. He wrote the
book entitled “The Wealth of Nations.”
GEOGRAPHY
 Is the study of places and the relationships between people and their
environments.
  Geography (from Greek geographia, literally “earth descriptions.”
 The first person to use the word geographia was Eratosthenes (276-194 BC).

HISTORY
 Is the study of the past as kit is described in written documents. Events
occurring before written record are considered prehistory.
 History (from Greek historia, meaning “inquiry, knowledge acquired by
investigation”)
 Herodotus a 5th century BC Greek Historian is considered within the
Western tradition to be the “father of history”

LIGUISTIC
 The scientific study of language and structure.
 The earliest activities in the documentation and description of language have
been attributed to the 4th century BCE Indian grammarian Paninin, who
wrote a formal description of the Sanskrit language.

POLITICAL SCIENCE
 The branch of knowledge that deals with systems of government; the analysis
of political activity and behavior.

DEVELOPMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

ARISTOTLE
- Wrote “Politics” the first systematic work on political affairs
- Father of Political Science

NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI
- Wrote the prince,” a hand book for rulers in the art of government.
- Father of the Modern Political Science.

PROF. FRANCIS LIEBER

- Wrote “Manual of Political Ethics” the first systematic teatise in
political science.

PSYCHOLOGY
 Is the science of behavior and mind
WILHELM WUNDT
- He is referred to as the “father of psychology” because in 1879 he
started the first laboratory in psychology for studying humans.

SOCIOLOGY
 The study of the development, structure, and functioning of the human
society.
AUGUSTE COMTE
- Father of sociology
- Coined the term sociology

DEMOGRAPHY
 The study of statistics such births, deaths, income, or the incidence of
disease, which illustrate the changing structure of human population.

THOMAS MALTHUS
o Is often regarded as the father of demography, the study of population.
o Malthus looked at the rate of population growth and concludes that
food production could not possibly increase fast enough to sufficient.