Social sciences

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the science studying social groups. For the integrated field of study intended to promote civic competence, see Social studies.

The social sciences are the fields of academic scholarship which explore aspects of human society.[1] Social sciences may draw upon empirical methods and attempt to emulate the standards of conventional scientific practice. By contrast, other social scientists employ critical analysis or hermeneutic methods to study objects of enquiry they regard as inconsistent with the conventional approach.

Social science is commonly used as an umbrella term to refer to a plurality of fields outside of the natural sciences. These fields include: anthropology, archaeology, economics, geography, linguistics, political science, and, in certain contexts, psychology. Subjects such as international relations and social work are concerned primarily with application and do not constitute social sciences per se.

The term may be used, however, in the specific context of referring to the original sciences of society established in 19th century sociology. Émile Durkheim, Karl Marx and Max Weber are typically cited as the principal architects of modern social science by this definition.[2] Positivist sociologists attempt to emulate the natural sciences as a model for understanding society, and so define "science" in its stricter modern sense. Antipositivists, by contrast, use social critique or symbolic interpretation rather than raw empirical observation, and thus treat "science" in its broader, classical sense. In modern academic practice theorists are often eclectic, using multiple methodologies.