DISCIPLINES AND IDEAS IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

Module 1: Introduction to Social Sciences

Objectives:
 Define social science as the study of society
 Distinguish social sciences from natural sciences and from the humanities
 Generate an analysis of a social phenomenon using at least two social science
approaches
 Articulate the contributions of early scholars in the development of social science
 Illustrate situations and context in which social science can be applied

Topic 1

Social Science as a Field of Inquiry

What is Social Science?

o Study of phenomena relating to human groups and their sociophysical
environment.
o It implies two important contexts:
 It involves scientific process
 It inquires about social space
o So to say, social science involves a scientific and methodologically study of
humans and society.

How does the inquiry or research in social science begins?

o It can be traced back to the Ancient Greek philosophers who inquired on the
questions of ethics, the nature of the person, society, and the state.
o These philosophers endeavored to bring their insights into the nature of societies
and the development of governments.
 Plato
- Human nature or the soul is a reflection of society and how a society
can achieve harmony by creating classes or divisions.
 Aristotle
- Discussed how different types of governments can be transformed into
something just or corrupt.
 Herodotus
- Paid particular attention to how the different cultures of different
societies converged and diverged.
 These became the foundations of social science disciplines such as
political science, anthropology, sociology, linguistics, and history.
 If it’s not for them who argued about human nature and man’s
place in the society, it is most likely that social science would not be
where it is today.
o Medieval Philosophies that contributed to the early development of social
science.
 Al-Biruni (973-1048)
- Islamic medieval scholar who documented the lives of early
populations in the Middle East, South Asia, and the Mediterranean.
- Most acclaimed works:
 The Remaining Signs of Past Centuries (1000 CE), a
comparative study of the different calendars of cultures and
civilizations in the Middle East and South Asia.
 Critical Study of What India Says, whether Accepted by
Reason or Refused, which a detailed account of the religion and
philosophy of India.
 Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406)
- North African muslim scholar who was recognized as one of the key
founders of several disciplines in the social sciences such as
demography, history, sociology, anthropology, and economics.
- Most acclaimed work:
 Muqaddimah of Ibn Khaldun (1377), used the universal history
approach that emphasized history of humankind as a coherent
unit of analysis, insisting that history be void of “idle
superstition and uncritical acceptance of historical data.” This
germinated the practice of “scientific approach” to the study of
human populations.
 Church
- Concern was the rigorous study of human nature and the use of Greek
philosophy to support and defend theological ideals and principles
- Its pursuit of knowledge in physical science is an effort to reconcile
science with theological ideals.
- Church opinion affected all disciplines under social science for
centuries.
- The desire to seek truth in both physical and metaphysical aspects of
humanity would become the groundwork from which the social
sciences would develop.
o The Age of Enlightenment, particular attention was given to how societies
originated, how they functioned, and how they were governed.
o Philosophers of the enlightenment began to question the rule of the absolute
monarchs and proposed that the power of any state lies not on its government
but on its people.
 Thomas Hobbes
- Develop the idea that absolute monarch are essential to enforce the will
of the people, but argued that the monarch’s power came from the
people and not from divine right.
 John Locke
- Argued that the power of the state to govern is a power given by the
people for the protection of their inalienable rights.
 Montesquieu
 - Developed the idea of government having a system of checks and
balances, and called for the separation of government powers into the
executive, legislative, and judicial branches
 Jean-Jacques Rousseau
- Attempted to explain that a social contract exists, which enables a
society to function toward a general will or a common good.

ASSESSMENT:

Essay:
How did Greek philosophy aid the development of social science inquiry?
 TOPIC 2

REVOLUTION: SOCIAL CHANGE AND THE RISE OF MODERN SOCIAL

SCIENCES

The French Revolution (1789-1799)

What is the French Revolution?

o Social inequality led the peasants, workers, and merchants to take arms against
the monarchy.
o Bloodiest revolution in the modern history.
Causes of the French Revolution:
o Economic, social, and political problems that plagued France. A by-product of
King Louis XVI’s poor governance and the rise of enlightenment ideas that
criticized the absolute power of the monarchy and the church.
o Society was unequally divided onto three classes: clergy, nobility and the
masses.
- Among three classes, the masses—which consists of the bulk of
population—received the brunt of inequality, as they were accorded
with less rights and privileges while being demanded more labor and
tax requirements by the ruling classes.
Consequences of the revolution
o Empowerment of the working class and the weakening of the ecclesiastical and
monarchial power.
o Created new forms of understanding and meaning-making, as age old systems
and mechanism were toppled.
o Reformation of a monarchy that is based on the constitution rather than on the
Church’s dictates.
o Departure from the church based orientation in explaining human affairs
(Montesquieu, Robespierre, Lafayette and Condorcet—great thinkers of the
French Revolution)

Industrial Revolution (1760-1840)

What is Industrial Revolution?

o Nonviolent source of social change.
Consequences of Industrial Revolution:
o Shift from human labor dependence to machine dependence as the technological
advancements in this period paved the way for manufactured products and
consequently, the production of surplus.
o Mechanized forms of farming were implemented
o Created new social classes that were based on a democratic capitalist orientation,
which was a by-product of the system that focused on surplus production.
o Rise of middle class as an influential sector in a traditional monarchical Britain.
Economic and political thinkers in the West who argued for and against the impacts of
the industrialization of production:
  Thomas Malthus
- Asserted that the growth of population unless checked, would be faster
than what the industries could produce
 Adam Smith
- Argued for the intensification of production of goods which must not
be restrained by government policies.
 John Stuart Mill
- Disagreed with Smith, says that a free market will only favor the ruling
elite and would severely oppress the working class who are manning
the industries.
What is the importance of these theorists in social sciences?
o Promoted the interrogation of the social conditions of their time using logical
reason and scientific approaches, which were the key elements in the
development of the social sciences. (as a student, have you ever been examined
your present condition in order to contribute for the development of yourself?
How?)

Conclusion
o With the wide-ranging social upheavals that the French and the industrial
revolutions spawned, gaps in knowledge and systems of understanding persisted
and created the need to develop new methods of analysis and modes of inquiries.
It is within this backdrop that the disciplines of the social sciences were
developed and implemented.

ASSESSMENT:

Essay
1. What were the causes of the French Revolution?
2. What were the results of the Industrial Revolution?
 TOPIC 3

THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIAL SCIENCE STUDY AND RESEARCH

William Thompson
o Irish political and philosophical writer.
o First used the term social science in his book An Inquiry into the Principles of
Distribution of Wealth Most Conducive to Human Happiness; Applied to Newly
Proposed System of Voluntary Equality of Wealth.
- This book is a response to the growing arguments on economic and
social development of his time that were written by Marx and Adam
Smith.
o Proposed a social science which is utilitarian in approach to materialism.
European setting during this time:
o Economic and technological progress
o Population doubled resulted to tension between food supply and population ratio
 Thomas Malthus (Essay on the Principle of Population)
- This tension is a significant threat to the balance between resources
and population.
- Population if left unchecked, would increase immensely and would
pose problems to the distribution of finite resources.(what do you
think is the best way of population control? Explain further.)
 Karl Marx (Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital)
- Articulated on the unjust treatment of the working class and the need
for social reform
- Works for labor reform (are you able to pinpoint some abuses of the
capitalists to the working classes? Cite some situations)
 Alexis de Tocqueville
- Critique on the impact of technological development.
- Technology deprived humans of creativity and freedom as they were
made mere appendages to machines in assembly line.
- Technical specialization inhibited workers from using their full mental
capacity. (as a student, will agree with him? Why? Is technology
hindering us from developing ourselves fully?)

Approaches in Social Science

What methods and techniques could be used for a systematic

understanding of society?

a) Positivism – subscribe to a highly quantitative analysis of society.

 August Comte
- Argued that there were three stages in the development of reason:
theological, philosophical, and scientific.
1) Theological
  Knowledge is based on the assumptions lifted from
sacred texts.
2) Philosophical
 Knowledge is based on critical thinking
3) Scientific
 The most accurate form of knowledge since it comes
from positive observation.
 Social realm should be understood using highly
quantifiable methods, which requires that a
phenomenon be understood by conducting processes
that include hypothesis building and testing through
observation or experiment—empirical method
(Scholar is empiricist, processes empiricism).
 By the 20th century, pragmatism was influenced by
Darwin’s progression of species. This evolutionary
perspective was used to make meaning of human
relationships.
 Emile Durkheim (The Rules of Sociological Method)
- Everything in the social realm could be quantifiably understood e.g.
survey on suicide.
- Father of modern sociology.

Criticism of positivist approach in sociology:

o Strict adherence to empiricism, like dismissal of topics not measurable by
statistical methods is negligence of relevant issues of society.
o Post-positivism or Postmodernism
- Critic of positivism.
- Any social phenomenon is understood using a combination of logical
reasoning and empirical observation
- Science is probabilistic, not exact is often informed by various
possibilities.
- Venture into the concept of subjectivity wherein the basic argument
is that social reality is constructed by subjective minds.

Research Methods in Social Sciences

1. Inductive Research
- Aims to understand theoretical concepts from available data.
2. Deductive Research
- Aims to test theories using new observed data
i. Qualitative Design – relies on numerical data e.g. texts and
spoken words as sources of information.
ii. Quantitative Design – relies heavily on numerical data. (require
research methods and instruments that would allow for the
acquisition of pertinent data). The following are research
methods and instruments:
 a. Survey – a process of gathering the responses of a certain
number of participants on a topic. These responses are
coded and statistically analyzed for average and
correlations e.g. questionnaires.
b. Key informant interview – process of asking individuals a
set of questions face-to-face.
i. Highly structured interview guides – present the
informant a set of questions and specific answers
that they could choose from.
ii. Semi-structured interview guides – present open-
ended questions to the informants.
c. Participant observation – immersing in the environment
and circumstances of the people in the study.
Social Sciences and Natural Sciences
o Natural sciences: chemistry, biology, and physics—common approach in
investigating in the natural sciences is its highly empirical stance that aims to
discover laws that govern the order of nature.
- Considered as “real/hard science.”
o Social Sciences – regarded as “soft science”
o Though different in terms of topic, similar in terms of methodology
Social Sciences and Humanities
o Social science is linked with humanities in the context of the interpretative
approach
o Humanities – chief aim is to produce wisdom by understanding social realities
through reflection e.g. what does it mean to be human? How can society be
better?
o Social science – employs the reflective approach vis-à-vis the scientific method.