Apa perbezaan antara Ilmu Kemanusiaan dan Sains Kemasyarakatan?

What are social sciences?What are social sciences?

Academic disciplines dealing with the study of the social life of groups and individuals

AnthropologyCommunicationsEconomics/BusinessHistoryPolitical Sciences International RelationsPsychologySociology

Why a Philosophy of Social Science?

•It may be safe to assume that we know what the social and behavioral sciences are—psychology, sociology, political science, economics, anthropology, and you might include also disciplines that intersect and overlap these fields, such as geography, demography, social psychology, history, and archaeology.

•But it may not be safe to assume we know what philosophy is, even if you have studied a good deal of it already. •The reason is that there is nothing like consensus among philosophers about exactly what their subject is. But in order to understand what the philosophy of social science is, and to see why it is important, it is crucial to have some agreement on the nature of philosophy.

The discipline of philosophy attempts to address two sorts of questions. 1. Questions that the sciences—physical, biological, social, and behavioral—cannot answer 2. Questions about why the sciences cannot answer the former questions

For example, most biologists now believe they can answer questions about human nature, the origins of man, and the nature of life that have perplexed science and philosophy since their beginnings. And there are other questions that are equally old and still remain unanswered. For example, questions about consciousness, thought, sensation, and emotion remain unsolved.

Logic examines the nature of sound and valid reasoning, as it figures in mathematics, in the sciences as well as in other areas of intellectual life that proceed by argument and inference. Is there just one body of valid principles of inference or do different sciences and subject matters require different logics?

Epistemology considers the nature, extent, and justification of knowledge: Are all claims to knowledge justified in the same way, by appeal to broadly the same kind of evidence, or are some theories—say, those of mathematics, the social sciences, or the humanities—warranted by considerations different from those natural scientists demand?

Metaphysics pursues questions about the nature of things:• Are there just the material things with which natural science deals? •Is the mind a distinct sort of nonphysical substance?•Is human action free from physical constraints that determine the behavior of purely mechanical systems? •Are there numbers, as opposed to the numerals we employ to express them?

Ethics and political philosophy address those questions that scientific progress raises but cannot answer

What is the study of philosophy of social sciencesthe study of the logic and methods of the social sciences. Central topics include: 1.What are the criteria of a good social explanation?2.How (if at all) are the social sciences distinct from the natural sciences? 3.Is there a distinctive method for social research? 4.Through what sorts of empirical procedures are social science assertions to be evaluated? 5.Are there irreducible social laws? 6.Are there causal relations among social phenomena? 7.Do social facts and regularities require some form of reduction to facts and regularities involving only the properties and actions of individuals?

The philosophy of social science aims to provide an interpretation of the social sciences that permits answers to these questions.

•The philosophy of social science has both a descriptive and a prescriptive side. On the one hand, the field is about the social sciences--the explanations, methods, empirical arguments, theories, hypotheses, and so forth, that actually occur in the social science literature, past and present.

•This means that the philosopher needs to have extensive knowledge of several areas of social science research, in order to be able to formulate an analysis of the social sciences that corresponds appropriately to scientists' practice.

•On the other hand, the field is epistemic: it is concerned with the idea that scientific theories and hypotheses are put forward as true or probable, and are justified on rational grounds (empirical and theoretical).

Social Philosophy and Social Social Philosophy and Social ScienceScience

Although philosophy and science spring from experience, from the inherent desire of the human person to know reality, they differ in their approach and intent.

Philosophy seeks to understand reality in its totality and ultimate value, while science attempts to control and manipulate it.

Philosophical approach integrative of experience; while science isolates a certain aspect of reality.

Social philosophy penetrates into the social dimension of human existence with the immediacy of intuition, searching its meaning and value(s), conceptualizing them for the sake of integrative meaningful living.

Structures that social philosophy seeks to understand are not taken in isolation from one another but placed in a figure-horizon sort of way.

Attempts to understand being-with-others-in society in total integrative way.

Social sciences try to examine a segment of social reality (a group of people, their culture, their economics or politics) as a fact and to explain it.

Social scientist tries to find inter-objective connections between facts and formulates theories and laws, sometimes with measurements and statistics.

Uses induction and deduction.Method limited to observable phenomena, to

social reality as an object.

Social philosophy and social sciences help each other.

Philosopher’s insight substantiated by facts provided by scientist, and scientist is impelled to probe into a social fact by the insight of a philosopher.

Scientist’s methodology contains certain philosophical presuppositions for the philosopher to unearth and criticize.

Philosopher’s understanding of social reality would remain abstract and unfounded without findings of the social sciences.

Human Existence is SocialHuman Existence is Social

Our life is social in everything. By “everything” we mean everything that is subject to human responsibility.

The person’s activities are social not only because he/she performs them with others but also because he/she learns them from others, executes them according to accepted patterns and does them for his/her fellow human beings.

Even wanting to be alone is social.

Every genuinely human activity is interwoven with an orderly field of meaning, but this orderly field of meaning is at our disposal through others, through society. This is true in the areas of work, play, sense perception, thinking, and feeling.

Orderly field of meaning in human activity depends upon our fellow human beings and is in turn dependent upon the human person.

Human existence is fundamentally social in that1) human existence has a historical character,2) we need others to enter into the human world of

meaning and to make it our own, and3) being-together is a fundamental value which

gives authentic fulfillment in our life. The authentic being-for-others is being at the

service of others that promotes the existence of the other for his own sake. Here, the being-for-others and the being-through-others merge.

““education” as seen from Global education” as seen from Global NorthNorth

1001inventions.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=main....

The reach and genius of Muslim Civilisation 1,000 years ago belies the Western description of this era as the "Dark Ages". Instead it

was a vibrant, sophisticated time, when ancestors created maps of the stars, flying machines, algebra, water raising

machines and everyday items like soap and the fountain pen.

http://www.1001inventions.com/mt/archives/blog_26/HeritageTimeLine.gif

Enlightened Age

?

Epistemology: Epistemology: How do we know when something How do we know when something is true?is true?

Natural Sciences Scientific Method

Social Sciences 3 Research Orientations

Positivism (often quantitative research) Interpretivism (often qualitative research) Realism

The Scientific MethodThe Scientific Method

Research Question

Unexplained Phenomenon

Theory

Tentative Explanation

Hypothesis

Observable Prediction

Experiment

Falsification

Support or Refute Theory

Key Epistemological Question for Key Epistemological Question for the Social Sciences: the Social Sciences: Can the social world be studied with the Can the social world be studied with the same methods used in the natural same methods used in the natural sciences?sciences?

YES Positivism (Emile Durkheim) Typically Deductive Research

NO Interpretivism or Verstehen (Max Weber)

Typically Inductive Research

YES Realism (Karl Mark, Sigmund Freud) No methodological preference

Social Science Tradition (1):Social Science Tradition (1):PositivismPositivism

Knowledge derived from observations (empiricism)◦Theory alone is not scientific knowledge

philosophy◦Scientific knowledge: theories supported by data

Research is deductiveTheory Hypothesis Collect Data Findings Findings confirm or reject hypothesis Revise

theory Social science should be value free

◦Social scientist’s personal opinions shouldn’t matter

Building Blocks of Positivism: Building Blocks of Positivism: Theories, Hypotheses, and VariablesTheories, Hypotheses, and Variables

Theory: Plausible explanation for a particular social phenomenon.

–Theory explains the ‘causal relationship’ between social variables.–The data determine the ‘correlation between variables’.

Founding Theories of Sociology–Karl Marx (Capitalism and Society)–Max Weber (Religion and Capitalism)–Emile Durkheim

Variables: An important “object” within a theory that can take on two or more different values or categories.

Examples of Sociological Variables:–Economic systems: capitalism, socialism, mixed economies.–Social Class: upper class, middle class, working class, lower class.–Gender: male, female (perhaps transgendered)–Age:–Education:

Proxies: A variable that represents (albeit imperfectly) a more complicated sociological concept. Proxies enable researchers to measure abstract social phenomena.

Examples:Concept Possible ProxyGender Equality -- Gender pay gapPolitical participation --- Voter participation ratesNational Prosperity --- Income per capita

Measurement Validity

Hypothesis: A short and empirically testable statement, derived from theory, which predicts a certain outcome.Possible hypotheses for classical theories in sociology:

–Marx: The more the economy is privately owned, the more economic inequality will grow in that society.

–Weber: Protestant-dominated countries have stronger economies than Catholic-dominated countries.

–Durkheim: The more advanced a society’s division of labor, the more people in that society will suffer from anomie.

Important note: All of these hypotheses can be tested; thus they are said to be ‘falsifiable’.

The Epistemological Problem

The way we construct knowledge about the natural and physical worldis very different

to how we construct knowledge about ourselves

“Structure and Action”

Social Science

“Structure and Function”

Natural Science

Social institutionsCultural institutionsPolitical institutionsThe corporationRegulatory bodiesThe armyThe marketNGOs…

WorkRitualsPlayWarTheftCommerceCreative artsCommunications…

Hollow bone structureProtein shape

Organism shapeFur

Flat teethDNADNA

…

FlightCatalytic reactionEfficient propulsionThermal insulationEating grassSuccessful reproductionMetabolism…

Social Science tends to be“Subjective”, inward-focused,and has an abstract ontology

Natural Science tends to be“Objective”, outward-focused,and has a concrete ontology

Social Science

Language

Biology

Engineering

ChemistryPhysics

More abstract

More physical

Creative ArtsHumanities

Natural &Physical Science

Economics

Anthropology

Sociology

Mathematics

Can we put natural and social science on the same page?

“Objective” “Subjective”

Software,ICT

Networks& hardware

Computer Science Media

ICT allows us to suspendE&O issues while webuild somethingtogether

(This is difficult, and the subjective/objective dichotomy is an oversimplification)

In-Class Exercise:In-Class Exercise:1) Write out a one sentence hypothesis that offers a plausible explanation for the following social problems:

–poverty –gender inequality in the workplace –anti-social behavior among teenagers

2) Identify the variables in your hypotheses

3) How you would measure these variables?