Social sciences and their types. Social sciencies. Subject and Methods of Social Sciences
Social (social and humanitarian) sciences- complex scientific disciplines, the subject of research of which are society in all manifestations of its life and man as a member of society. The social sciences include such theoretical forms of knowledge as philosophy, sociology, political science, history, philology, psychology, cultural studies, jurisprudence (jurisprudence), economics, art history, ethnography (ethnology), pedagogy, etc.
Subject and Methods of Social Sciences
The most important subject of research in social science is society, which is considered as a historically developing integrity, a system of relations, forms of associations of people that have developed in the process of their joint activity. Through these forms, the comprehensive interdependence of individuals is presented.
Each of the above disciplines examines social life from different angles, from a certain theoretical and worldview position, using its own specific research methods. So, for example, in the research tool of society is the category "power", by virtue of which it appears as an organized system of power relations. In sociology, society is considered as a dynamic system of relations social groups varying degrees of community. Categories "Social group", "social relations", "socialization" become a method of sociological analysis of social phenomena. In cultural studies, culture and its forms are considered as value aspect of society. Categories "Truth", "beauty", "good", "benefit" are ways of studying specific cultural phenomena. , using categories like "Money", "commodity", "market", "demand", "supply" etc., explores the organized economic life of society. studies the past of society, relying on various preserved sources about the past, in order to establish the sequence of events, their causes and interrelation.
The first explore natural reality through a generalizing (generalizing) method, identifying Nature laws.
Second non-repeatable, unique historical events are studied through the individualizing method. The task of historical sciences is to understand the meaning of the social ( M. Weber) in various historical and cultural contexts.
V "Philosophy of life" (V. Dilthey) nature and history are separated from each other and opposed as ontologically alien spheres, as different spheres being. Thus, not only the methods, but also the objects of cognition in the natural and humanitarian sciences are different. Culture is a product of the spiritual activity of people of a certain epoch, and in order to understand it, one must experience values of this era, motives of people's behavior.
Understanding as direct, immediate comprehension of historical events is opposed to derivative, indirect knowledge in natural sciences.
Understanding Sociology (M. Weber) interprets social action, trying to explain it. The result of this interpretation are hypotheses, on the basis of which the explanation is built. History, therefore, appears as a historical drama, the author of which is the historian. The depth of understanding of the historical era depends on the genius of the researcher. The historian's subjectivity is not an obstacle to knowledge public life, but a tool and method for understanding history.
The separation of the natural sciences and the cultural sciences was a reaction to the positivist and naturalistic understanding of the historical existence of man in society.
Naturalism views society from the standpoint vulgar materialism, does not see fundamental differences between cause-and-effect relationships in nature and in society, explains social life by natural, natural causes, using natural scientific methods for their knowledge.
Human history appears as a "natural process", and the laws of history become a kind of laws of nature. So, for example, supporters geographic determinism(school of geography in sociology) the main factor social change consider the geographical environment, climate, landscape (C. Montesquieu , G. Bockle, L.I. Mechnikov) . Representatives social Darwinism reduce social laws to biological ones: they regard society as an organism (G. Spencer), and politics, economics and morality - as forms and methods of struggle for existence, a manifestation of natural selection (P. Kropotkin, L. Gumplovich).
Naturalism and positivism (O. Comte , G. Spencer , D.-S. Mill) sought to abandon the speculative, scholastic reasoning characteristic of metaphysical studies of society, and create a "positive", evidence-based, generally valid social theory in the likeness of natural science, which has basically reached the "positive" stage of development. However, on the basis of this kind of research, racist conclusions were made about the natural division of people into superior and inferior races. (J. Gobineau) and even about the direct relationship between class and anthropological parameters of individuals.
At present, we can talk not only about the opposition of the methods of the natural and humanitarian sciences, but also about their convergence. In the social sciences, mathematical methods are actively used, which are a characteristic feature of natural science: in (especially in econometrics), v ( quantitative history, or cliometry), (political analysis), philology (). In solving problems of specific social sciences, techniques and methods taken from the natural sciences are widely used. For example, knowledge from the field of astronomy, physics, biology is used to clarify the dating of historical events, especially those that are remote in time. There are also scientific disciplines that combine the methods of social, humanitarian and natural sciences, for example, economic geography.
The rise of the social sciences
In antiquity, most of the social (social and humanitarian) sciences entered philosophy as a form of integrating knowledge about man and society. To some extent, we can talk about the separation into independent disciplines of jurisprudence (Ancient Rome) and history (Herodotus, Thucydides). In the Middle Ages, the social sciences developed within the framework of theology as an indivisible comprehensive knowledge. In ancient and medieval philosophy, the concept of society was practically identified with the concept of the state.
Historically, the first most significant form of social theory is the teachings of Plato and Aristotle. I am. In the Middle Ages, thinkers who made a significant contribution to the development of the social sciences include Augustine, John of Damascus, Thomas Aquinsky , Gregory Palamu... An important contribution to the development of the social sciences was made by figures renaissance(XV-XVI centuries) and New time(XVII century): T. More ("Utopia"), T. Campanella"City of Sun", N. Machiavel-Lee"Sovereign". In modern times, the final separation of social sciences from philosophy takes place: economics (17th century), sociology, political science and psychology (19th century), cultural studies (20th century). University departments and faculties in the social sciences appear, specialized journals devoted to the study of social phenomena and processes begin to appear, associations of scientists engaged in research in the field of social sciences are created.
The main directions of modern social thought
In social science as a set of social sciences in the XX centuries. two approaches were formed: scientist-technocratic and humanistic (anti-scientist).
The main theme of modern social science is the fate of capitalist society, and the most important subject is post-industrial, "mass society" and the peculiarities of its formation.
This gives these studies a clear futurological flavor and journalistic passion. Assessments of the state and historical perspective of modern society can be diametrically opposite: from foreseeing global catastrophes to predicting a stable prosperous future. World outlook task such research is the search for new common goal and ways to achieve it.
The most developed of modern social theories is postindustrial society concept , the main principles of which are formulated in the works D. Bella(1965). The idea of a post-industrial society is quite popular in modern social science, and the term itself unites a number of studies, the authors of which seek to determine the leading trend in the development of modern society, considering the production process in various, including organizational, aspects.
In the history of mankind stand out three phases:
1. preindustrial(agrarian form of society);
2. industrial(technological form of society);
3. postindustrial(social stage).
Production in a pre-industrial society uses raw materials as the main resource, not energy, extracts products from natural materials, and does not produce them in the proper sense, intensively uses labor, not capital. The most important social institutions in the pre-industrial society are the church and the army, in the industrial society - the corporation and the firm, and in the post-industrial society - the university as a form of knowledge production. The social structure of post-industrial society loses its pronounced class character, property ceases to be its basis, the capitalist class is supplanted by the ruling elite, possessing high level knowledge and education.
Agrarian, industrial and post-industrial societies are not stages of social development, but are coexisting forms of organization of production and its main trends. The industrial phase begins in Europe from the 19th century. Post-industrial society does not supplant other forms, but adds a new aspect associated with the use of information, knowledge in public life. The formation of post-industrial society is associated with the spread in the 70s. XX century. information technologies that radically influenced production, and, consequently, the very way of life. In the postindustrial (informational) society, there is a transition from the production of goods to the production of services, a new class appears technicians who become consultants, experts.
The main resource of production becomes information(in a pre-industrial society, this is raw material, in an industrial one - energy). Science-intensive technologies are replacing labor-intensive and capital-intensive ones. Based on this distinction, it is possible to single out the specific features of each society: pre-industrial society is based on interaction with nature, industrial society - on the interaction of society with transformed nature, post-industrial - on interaction between people. Society, thus, appears as a dynamic, progressively developing system, the main driving trends of which are in the sphere of production. In this respect, there is a certain similarity between the postindustrial theory and Marxism, which is determined by the common ideological pre-premises of both concepts - educational worldview values.
Within the framework of the post-industrial paradigm, the crisis of modern capitalist society appears as a gap between a rationalistically oriented economy and a humanistically oriented culture. The way out of the crisis should be the transition from the domination of capitalist corporations to research organizations, from capitalism to the knowledge society.
In addition, many other economic and social shifts are outlined: the transition from an economy of goods to an economy of services, an increase in the role of education, a change in the structure of employment and orientation of a person, the formation of a new motivation for activity, a radical change in the social structure, the development of the principles of democracy , the formation of new policy principles, the transition to a non-market welfare economy.
In the work of a famous contemporary American futurist O. Toflera"Shock of the future" notes that the acceleration of social and technological change has a shock effect on the individual and society as a whole, makes it difficult for a person to adapt in a changing world. The reason for the current crisis is the transition of society to the civilization of the "third wave". The first wave is an agrarian civilization, the second is an industrial one. Modern society can survive in existing conflicts and global tensions only if it transitions to new values and new forms of sociality. The main thing is the revolution in thinking. Social changes are caused, first of all, by changes in technology, which determines the type of society and the type of culture, and this influence is carried out in a wave-like manner. The third technological wave (associated with the growth of information technologies and a radical change in communication) significantly changes the way and style of life, the type of family, the nature of work, love, communication, the form of economy, politics, consciousness.
The main characteristics of industrial technology, based on the old type of technology and the division of labor, are centralization, gigantism and uniformity (mass character), accompanied by oppression, squalor, poverty and environmental disasters. Overcoming the vices of industrialism is possible in the future, post-industrial society, the main principles of which will be integrity and individualization.
Concepts such as "employment", " workplace”,“ Unemployment ”, non-profit organizations in the field of humanitarian development are spreading, there is a refusal from the dictates of the market, from narrowly utilitarian values that led to humanitarian and environmental disasters.
Thus, science, which has become the basis of production, is entrusted with the mission of transforming society, humanizing social relations.
The concept of a post-industrial society was criticized from various points of view, and the main criticism was that this concept is nothing more than apology for capitalism.
An alternative route is suggested in personalistic concepts of society , in which modern technologies("Mechanization", "computerization", "robotization") are evaluated as a means of deepening human self-alienation from its essence. So, antiscientism and antithechnicism E. Fromm allows him to see the deep contradictions of the post-industrial society that threaten the self-realization of the individual. The consumer values of modern society are the reason for the depersonalization and dehumanization of social relations.
The basis of social transformations should be not a technological and logical, but a personalist revolution, a revolution in human relations, the essence of which will be a radical value reorientation.
The value attitude toward possession (“to have”) must be replaced by an ideological orientation toward being (“to be”). The true vocation of man and his highest value is love. . Only in love is the attitude to being realized, the structure of a person's character changes, the problem finds a solution human existence... In love, a person's respect for life increases, a feeling of attachment to the world, merging with being, is sharply manifested, the alienation of a person from nature, society, another person, from himself is overcome. Thus, the transition from egoism to altruism, from authoritarianism to genuine humanism in human relations is carried out, and personal orientation towards being appears as the highest human value. On the basis of criticism of modern capitalist society, a project of a new civilization is being built.
The purpose and task of personal being is to build personalistic (community) civilization, societies where the customs and way of life, social structures and institutions would correspond to the requirements of personal communication.
It must embody the principles of freedom and creativity, harmony (while maintaining the distinction) and responsibility . The economic basis of such a society is the gift economy. The personalistic social utopia is opposed to the concepts of "abundance society", "consumer society", " legal society", Which are based on different kinds violence and coercion.
Recommended reading
1. Adorno T. Towards the Logic of the Social Sciences
2. Popper K.R. The logic of the social sciences
3. Schutz A. Methodology of social sciences
;The humanities and social sciences are a complex of many disciplines, the subject of which is both society as a whole and a person as its member. These include political science, philosophy, philology, psychology, economics, pedagogy, jurisprudence, cultural studies, ethnology and other theoretical knowledge.
Specialists in these areas are trained and graduated from sciences, which can be separate educational institution, and be a subdivision of any liberal arts university.
social sciences
First of all, they explore society. Society is viewed as an integrity that develops historically and represents associations of people, formed as a result of joint actions and having their own system of relations. The presence of various groups in society allows you to see how individuals are interdependent on each other.
Social sciencies: research methods
Each of the above disciplines applies specific only to it. Thus, political science, studying society, operates with the category of "power". Culturology considers as an aspect of society that has value, culture and forms of its manifestation. Economics examines the life of society from the standpoint of organizing the management of the economy.
For this purpose, she uses categories such as market, money, demand, product, supply and others. Sociology views society as a constantly evolving system of relations developing between social groups. History studies what has already happened. At the same time, trying to establish the sequence of events, their relationship, reasons, it is based on all kinds of documentary sources.
Formation of social sciences
In ancient times, social sciences predominantly entered into philosophy, since it studied both a person and the whole society at the same time. Only history and jurisprudence were partially separated into separate disciplines. The first social theory was developed by Aristotle and Plato. During the Middle Ages, social sciences were considered within the framework of theology as knowledge that was undivided and embraced absolutely everything. Their development was influenced by such thinkers as Gregory Palamas, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, John Damascene.
Since the modern era (since the 17th century), some social sciences (psychology, cultural studies, political science, sociology, economics) are completely separated from philosophy. In higher educational institutions on these subjects, faculties and departments are opened, specialized almanacs, journals, etc. are published.
Natural and social sciences: difference and similarity
This problem was solved in history ambiguously. So, the followers of Kant divided all sciences into two types: those studying nature and culture. Representatives of such a trend as the "philosophy of life" in general sharply opposed history to nature. They believed that culture is the result of the spiritual activity of mankind, and it is possible to understand it only after experiencing and realizing those eras, the motives of their behavior. In modern science and natural science are not only opposed, but also have points of contact. This, for example, the use of mathematical research methods in philosophy, political science, history; application of knowledge from the field of biology, physics, astronomy in order to establish the exact date of events that occurred in the distant past.
Under science it is customary to understand systematically organized knowledge based on facts obtained using empirical research methods based on the measurement of real phenomena. There is no consensus on the question of which disciplines belong to the social sciences. Exists different classifications these social sciences.
Depending on the connection with the practice of science, they are divided:
1) fundamental (find out the objective laws of the surrounding world);
2) applied (solve the problems of applying these laws to solve practical problems in the industrial and social areas).
If we adhere to this classification, the boundaries of these groups of sciences are conditional and flexible.
The generally accepted classification is based on the subject of research (those connections and dependencies that each science directly studies). In accordance with this, the following groups of social sciences are distinguished.
| Classification of social sciences and humanities Social Science Group | Social sciencies | Subject of study |
| Historical sciences | Domestic history, general history, archeology, ethnography, historiography, etc. | History is the science of the past of mankind, a way of systematizing and classifying it. It is the basis of humanitarian education, its fundamental principle. But, as A. Herzen noted, "the last day of history is the present day." Only on the basis of past experience can a person know modern society and even predict its future. In this sense, we can talk about the prognostic function of history in social science. Ethnography - the science of origin, composition, settlement, ethnic and national relations peoples |
| Economic Sciences | Economic theory, economics and management national economy, accounting, statistics, etc. | Economics establishes the nature of the laws operating in the sphere of production and the market, regulating the measure and form of the distribution of labor and its results. According to V. Belinsky, it is placed in the position of the ultimate science, revealing the effect of cognition and transformation of society, economics and law, etc. |
| Philosophical Sciences | History of philosophy, logic, ethics, aesthetics, etc. | Philosophy is the most ancient and fundamental science, establishing the most general laws of development of nature and society. Philosophy performs a cognitive function in society - knowledge. Ethics is a theory of morality, its essence and impact on the development of society and the life of people. Morality and ethics play a big role in motivating a person's behavior, his ideas about nobility, honesty, and courage. Aesthetics- the doctrine of the development of art and artistic creativity, the way to embody the ideals of mankind in painting, music, architecture and other areas of culture |
| Philological sciences | Literary criticism, linguistics, journalism, etc. | These sciences study language. Language is a set of signs used by members of society for communication, as well as within secondary modeling systems (fiction, poetry, texts, etc.) |
| Legal Sciences | Theory and history of state and law, history legal doctrines, constitutional law etc. | Jurisprudence fixes and explains state norms, rights and obligations of citizens arising from the main law of the country - the Constitution, and develops on this basis legislative framework societies |
| Pedagogical Sciences | General pedagogy, history of pedagogy and education, theory and methods of teaching and upbringing, etc. | Analyze individual and personal processes, the ratio of physiological, mental and socio-psychological characteristics inherent in a person of a certain age |
| Psychological Sciences | General psychology, personality psychology, social and political psychology, etc. | Social psychology is a borderline discipline. It was formed at the intersection of sociology and psychology. She explores human behavior, feelings and motivation in a group situation. She studies the social base of personality formation. Political psychology studies subjective mechanisms political behavior, the influence on him of consciousness and subconsciousness, emotions and will of a person, his beliefs, value orientations and attitudes |
| Sociological Sciences | Theory, methodology and history of sociology, economic sociology and demography, etc. | Sociology examines the relationship between the main social groups of modern society, the motives and patterns of human behavior |
| Political science | Political theory, history and methodology of political science, political conflictology, political technologies, etc. | Political science studies the political system of society, reveals the connections of parties and public organizations with state institutions management. The development of political science characterizes the degree of maturity civil society |
| Culturology | Theory and history of culture, musicology, etc. | Culturology is one of the young scientific disciplines that are emerging at the intersection of many sciences. It synthesizes the knowledge about culture accumulated by humanity into an integral system, forming ideas about the essence, functions, structure and dynamics of the development of culture as such |
So, we found out that there is no consensus on the question of which disciplines belong to the social sciences. However, to social sciences it is customary to refer sociology, psychology, social psychology, economics, political science and anthropology. These sciences have much in common, they are closely related to each other and constitute a kind of scientific union.
A group of related sciences adjoins them, which belong to humanitarian. it philosophy, language, art studies, literary criticism.
Social sciences operate quantitative(mathematical and statistical) methods, and humanitarian - quality(descriptive and evaluative).
From history of the formation of social sciences and humanities
Previously, the subject areas known as political science, law, ethics, psychology, and economics fell within the purview of philosophy. The classics of ancient philosophy Plato, Socrates and Aristotle were sure that all the diversity of the surrounding person and the world felt by him can be subjected to scientific research.
Aristotle (384-322 BC) proclaimed that all people are naturally inclined towards knowledge. Among the things people seek to learn about in the first place are questions like: why PEOPLE behave in this way, where did social institutions come from and how they function. The modern social sciences appeared only thanks to the enviable persistence of the ancient Greeks in their desire to analyze everything and think rationally. Since ancient thinkers were philosophers, the result of their reflections was considered part of philosophy, not social sciences.
If ancient thought was philosophical in nature, then medieval thought was theological. While the natural sciences freed themselves from the tutelage of philosophy and received their own name at the end of the Middle Ages, the social sciences remained for a long time in the sphere of influence of philosophy and theology. The main reason was, apparently, that the subject of the social sciences - human behavior - was closely associated with divine Providence and therefore was under the jurisdiction of the church.
The Renaissance, which revived interest in knowledge and learning, did not become the beginning of the independent development of the social sciences. Renaissance scholars studied more Greek and Latin texts, especially the works of Plato and Aristotle. Their own writings often boiled down to conscientious commentaries on ancient classics.
The turn took place only in the XVII-XVIII centuries, when a galaxy of outstanding philosophers appeared in Europe: the Frenchman Rene Descartes (1596-1650), the English Francis Bacon (1561-1626), Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) and John Locke (1632-1704) , German Immanuel Kant (1724-1804). They, as well as the French enlighteners Charles Louis Montesquieu (1689-1755) and Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) studied the functions of government (political science), the nature of society (sociology). The English philosophers David Hume (1711-1776) and George Berkeley (1685-1753), as well as Kant and Locke tried to figure out the laws of the operation of reason (psychology), and Adam Smith wrote the first great treatise on economics "A Study on the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations" (1776).
The era in which they worked is called the Enlightenment. It looked differently at man and human society, freeing our ideas from religious fetters. The Enlightenment put the traditional question differently: not how God created man, but how people create gods, society, institutions. Philosophers continued to think about these questions until the 19th century.
The emergence of the social sciences was greatly influenced by the cardinal changes in society that took place in the 18th century.
Dynamism social life favored the liberation of the social sciences from the shackles of philosophy. Another condition for the liberation of social knowledge was the development of natural sciences, primarily physics, which changed the way of thinking of people. If the material world can be the subject of precise measurement and analysis, then why can't the social world become such? The French philosopher Auguste Comte (1798-1857) was the first to try to answer this question. In his "Course in Positive Philosophy" (1830-1842), he proclaimed the emergence of "the science of man", calling it sociology.
According to Comte, the science of society should be on a par with the sciences of nature. His views at that time were shared by the English philosopher, sociologist and lawyer Jeremiah Bentham (1748-1832), who saw in morality and legislation the art of guiding the actions of people, the English philosopher and sociologist Herbert Spencer (1820-1903), who developed the mechanistic doctrine of universal evolution, German the philosopher and economist Karl Marx (1818-1883), the founder of the theory of classes and social conflict, and the English philosopher and economist John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), who wrote fundamental works on inductive logic and political economy. They believed that a single society should be studied by a single science. Meanwhile, at the end of the XIX century. the study of society has split into many disciplines and specialties. A similar thing happened a little earlier in physics.
Knowledge specialization is an inevitable and objective process.
The first among the social sciences to stand out economy. Although the term "economics" was used as early as 1790, the subject of this science was called political economy until the end of the 19th century. The Scottish economist and philosopher Adam Smith (1723-1790) became the founder of classical economics. In his "Study on the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations" (1776), he considered the theory of value and distribution of income, capital and its accumulation, the economic history of Western Europe, views on economic policy, state finances. A. Smith approached economics as a system in which objective laws amenable to knowledge operate. David Ricardo (Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, 1817), John Stuart Mill (Principles of Political Economy, 1848), Alfred Marshall (Principles of Economics, 1890), Karl Marx (Capital , 1867).
Economics studies the behavior of large masses of people in a market situation. In small and large - in public and privacy- people cannot step even without affecting economic relations... When negotiating work, buying goods on the market, counting our income and expenses, demanding payment of wages and even going to visit, we - directly or indirectly - take into account the principles of economy.
Like sociology, economics deals with large masses. The world market covers 5 billion people. The crisis in Russia or Indonesia is immediately reflected in the stock exchanges of Japan, America and Europe. When manufacturers are preparing the next batch of new products for sale, they are interested in the opinion not of an individual Petrov or Vasechkin, not even of a small group, but of large masses of people. This is understandable, because the law of profit requires you to produce more and at a lower price, getting the maximum revenue from turnover, and not from one piece.
Without a study of people's behavior in a market situation, the economy runs the risk of remaining just a technique for counting - profit, capital, interest, connected by abstract constructions of the theory.
Under political science refers to the academic discipline that studies the forms of government and the political life of society. The foundations of political science were laid by the ideas of Plato ("Republic") and Aristotle ("Politics"), who lived in the 4th century. BC NS. Political phenomena were also analyzed by the Roman senator Cicero. During the Renaissance, the most famous thinker was Niccolò Machiavelli (The Sovereign, 1513). Hugo Grozi published On the Laws of War and Peace in 1625. During the Enlightenment, thinkers were asked about the essence of the state and the functioning of government. Among them were Bacon, Hobbes, Locke, Montesquieu, and Rousseau. Political science developed into an independent discipline thanks to the works of the French philosophers Comte and Claude Henri de Saint-Simon (1760-1825).
The term "political science" is used in Western countries in order to distinguish scientific theories, precise methods and statistical analysis, which are applied to the study of the activities of the state and political parties, and which are reflected in the term political philosophy. For example, Aristotle, although considered the father of political science, was actually a political philosopher. If political science answers the question of how the political life of society is really arranged, then political philosophy answers the question of how this life should be arranged, what should be done with the state, what political regimes are right and which are wrong.
In our country, no distinction is made between political science and political philosophy... Instead of two terms, one is used - political science. Political science, unlike sociology, which concerns 95% of the population, affects only the tip of the iceberg - those who really have power, participate in the struggle for it, manipulate public opinion, participate in the redistribution of public property, lobby for the adoption of beneficial decisions in parliament, organize political parties etc. In general, political scientists are building speculative concepts, although in the second half of the 1990s. there has been some progress in this area as well. V independent direction distinguished some applied areas of political science, in particular, the technology of political elections.
Cultural anthropology was a consequence of the discovery of the New World by Europeans. Unfamiliar tribes of American Indians boggled the imagination with their customs and way of life. After that, the attention of scientists was attracted by the wild tribes of Africa, Oceania and Asia. Anthropology, which literally means "the science of man," was primarily interested in primitive, or preliterate, societies. Cultural anthropology deals with the comparative study of human societies, In Europe, it is also called ethnography and ethnology.
Among the outstanding ethnologists of the 19th century, that is, scientists engaged in comparative cultural studies, there is an English ethnographer, a researcher of primitive culture Edward Burnett Tylor (1832-1917), who developed an animistic theory of the origin of religion, an American historian and ethnographer Lewis Henry Morgan (1818- 1881), in the book "Ancient Society" (1877), the first to show the importance of the clan as the main unit of primitive society, the German ethnographer Adolph Bastian (1826-1905), who founded the Berlin Museum of Ethnology (1868) and wrote the book "People of East Asia" (1866- 1871). The English historian of religion, James George Fraser (1854-1941), who wrote the world famous book The Golden Bough (1907-1915), although he wrote already in the 20th century, is also among the pioneers of cultural anthropology.
A special place among the social sciences is occupied by sociology, which is translated (lat. socium- society, Greek. logos- knowledge, teaching, science) literally means knowledge about society. Sociology is the science of human life, based on strict and proven facts, statistics and mathematical analysis, and facts are often taken from life itself - from mass opinion polls of ordinary people. Sociology for Comte, who coined its name, meant the systematic study of people. At the beginning of the XIX century. O. Comte built a pyramid of scientific knowledge. All the fundamental fields of knowledge known at that time - mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry and biology - he arranged in a hierarchical order so that the simplest and most abstract sciences were at the bottom. More specific and more complex ones were placed above them. The most difficult science turned out to be sociology - the science of society. O. Comte conceived of sociology as an all-encompassing field of knowledge that studies history, politics, economics, culture and the development of society.
However, European science, contrary to Comte's expectations, went not along the path of synthesis, but on the contrary, along the path of differentiation and splitting of knowledge. Economic sphere society began to study the independent science of economics, political science - political science, the mental world of a person - psychology, traditions and customs of peoples - ethnography and cultural anthropology, and population dynamics - demography. And sociology emerged as a narrow discipline, which no longer covered the whole of society, but studied only one social sphere in the most detailed way.
The formation of the subject of sociology was greatly influenced by the Frenchman Emile Durkheim (“Rules sociological method", 1395), Germans Ferdinand Tennis (Community and Society, 1887), Georg Simmel (Sociology, 1908), Max Weber (Protestant Ethics and the Spirit of Capitalism, 1904-1905), Italian Vilfredo Pareto (Reason and Society, 1916), the Englishman Herbert Spencer (The Principles of Sociology, 1876-1896), the Americans Lester F. Ward (Applied Sociology, 1906) and William Graham Sumner (The Science of Society, 1927-1928).
Sociology emerged as a response to the needs of an emerging civil society. Sociology today is subdivided into many branches, including criminology and demography. It has become a science that helps society to know itself deeper and more concretely. By widely using empirical methods - questionnaire and observation, document analysis and observation methods, experiment and generalization of statistics - sociology was able to overcome the limitations of social philosophy, which operates with overly generalized models.
Public opinion polls on the eve of elections, analysis of the distribution of political forces in the country, value orientations of voters or strike participants, study of the level of social tension in a particular region - that's far from it. full list questions that are increasingly being solved by means of sociology.
Social Psychology - it is a borderline discipline. She was formed at the intersection of sociology and psychology, taking on the tasks that her parents were unable to solve. It turned out that a large society does not directly affect the individual, but through an intermediary - small groups. This world of friends, acquaintances and relatives closest to a person plays an exceptional role in our life. In general, we live in small, and not in large, worlds - in a specific house, in a specific family, in a specific company, etc. The small world sometimes affects us even more than the big one. That is why science appeared, which closely and very seriously dealt with it.
Social psychology is the field of study of human behavior, feelings and motivation, in a group situation. She studies the social base of personality formation. As an independent science, social psychology emerged at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1908, the American psychologist William McDougal published the book "Introduction to Social Psychology", which, thanks to its name, gave the name to the new discipline.
Social sciences, they are also often called social, study the laws, facts and dependencies of the socio-historical process, as well as the goals, motives and values of a person. They differ from art in that they use scientific method and standards, including qualitative and quantitative analysis of problems. The result of these studies is the analysis social processes and detecting patterns and recurring events in them.
Social Sciences
The first group includes sciences that provide the most general knowledge about society, primarily sociology. Sociology studies society and the laws of its development, the functioning of social communities and the relationship between them. This multi-paradigm science considers social mechanisms as self-sufficient means of regulating social relations. Most of the paradigms are divided into two areas - microsociology and macrosociology.
Sciences about certain areas of public life
This group of social sciences includes economics, political science, ethics and aesthetics. Culturology deals with the study of the interaction of cultural in the individual and mass consciousness. The object of economic research is economic reality. Because of its breadth, this science is a whole discipline that differs from each other in the subject of study. Economic disciplines include: macro and econometrics, mathematical methods of economics, statistics, industrial and engineering economics, history of economic studies and many others.
Ethics deals with the study of morality and ethics. Metaethics studies the origin and meaning of ethical categories and concepts using logical analysis. Normative ethics is about finding the principles that govern human behavior and guide his actions.
Sciences about all spheres of public life
These sciences permeate all spheres of public life, this is jurisprudence (jurisprudence) and history. Relying on various sources, the past of humanity. The subject of the study of jurisprudence is law as a socio-political phenomenon, as well as a set of generally binding certain rules of conduct established by the state. Jurisprudence views the state as an organization political power, which ensures the management of the affairs of the whole society with the help of law and a specially created state apparatus.
Society is such a complex object that science alone cannot study it. Only by combining the efforts of many sciences, it is possible to fully and consistently describe and study the most complex education that only exists in this world, human society. The totality of all sciences that study society as a whole is called social studies... These include philosophy, history, sociology, economics, political science, psychology and social psychology, anthropology and cultural studies. These are fundamental sciences, consisting of many sub-disciplines, sections, directions, scientific schools.
Social science, having arisen later than many other sciences, absorbs their concepts and specific results of statistics, tabular data, graphs and conceptual schemes, theoretical categories.
The whole set of sciences related to social science is divided into two types - social and humanitarian.
If the social sciences are the sciences of human behavior, then the humanities are the sciences of the spirit. In other words, the subject of the social sciences is society, the subject of the humanities is culture. The main subject of the social sciences is study of human behavior.
Sociology, psychology, social psychology, economics, political science, as well as anthropology and ethnography (the science of peoples) belong to social sciences ... They have a lot in common, they are closely related to each other and constitute a kind of scientific union. A group of other related disciplines adjoins him: philosophy, history, art studies, cultural studies, literary criticism. They are referred to humanitarian knowledge.
Since representatives of neighboring sciences constantly communicate and enrich each other with new knowledge, the boundaries between social philosophy, social psychology, economics, sociology and anthropology can be considered rather arbitrary. At their intersection, interdisciplinary sciences constantly arise, for example, at the junction of sociology and anthropology, social anthropology appeared, at the junction of economics and psychology - economic psychology. In addition, there are such integrative disciplines as legal anthropology, sociology of law, economic sociology, cultural anthropology, psychological and economic anthropology, historical sociology.
Let's take a closer look at the specifics of the leading social sciences:
Economy- a science that studies the principles of organization economic activity people, the relations of production, exchange, distribution and consumption, formed in every society, formulates the foundations of the rational behavior of the producer and consumer of goods. Economy also studies the behavior of large masses of people in a market situation. In small and large - in public and private life - people cannot even take a step without affecting economic relations... When negotiating a job, buying goods on the market, counting our income and expenses, demanding payment of wages and even going to visit, we - directly or indirectly - take into account the principles of economy.
Sociology- a science that studies the relationships that arise between groups and communities of people, the nature of the structure of society, problems of social inequality and the principles of resolving social conflicts.
Political science- a science that studies the phenomenon of power, the specifics of social management, relations arising in the process of carrying out state-power activities.
Psychology- the science of the laws, mechanism and facts of the mental life of man and animals. The main theme of psychological thought in antiquity and the Middle Ages is the problem of the soul. Psychologists study persistent and repetitive behavior in individual behavior. At the center of attention are the problems of perception, memory, thinking, learning and development of the human personality. There are many branches of knowledge in modern psychology, including psychophysiology, zoopsychology and comparative psychology, social psychology, child psychology and educational psychology, developmental psychology, labor psychology, creative psychology, medical psychology, etc.
Anthropology - the science of the origin and evolution of man, the formation of human races and the normal variations in the physical structure of man. She studies the primitive tribes that have survived today from primitive times in the lost corners of the planet: their customs, traditions, culture, behavior.
Social Psychology examines small group(family, group of friends, sports team). Social psychology is a borderline discipline. She was formed at the intersection of sociology and psychology, taking on the tasks that her parents were unable to solve. It turned out that a large society does not directly affect the individual, but through an intermediary - small groups. This world of friends, acquaintances and relatives closest to a person plays an exceptional role in our life. In general, we live in small, and not in large, worlds - in a specific house, in a specific family, in a specific company, etc. The small world sometimes affects us even more than the big one. That is why science appeared, which closely and very seriously dealt with it.
History- one of essential sciences in the system of social and humanitarian knowledge. The object of its study is man, his activity throughout the existence of human civilization. The word "history" is of Greek origin and means "research", "search". Some scholars believed that the object of the study of history is the past. The famous French historian M. Blok categorically objected to this. "The very idea that the past as such is capable of being an object of science is absurd."
The emergence of historical science dates back to the times of ancient civilizations. The ancient Greek historian Herodotus is considered to be the "Father of History", who composed a work dedicated to the Greco-Persian wars. However, this is hardly fair, since Herodotus used not so much historical data as legends, traditions and myths. And his work cannot be considered completely reliable. Thucydides, Polybius, Arrian, Publius Cornelius Tacitus, Ammianus Marcellinus have much more reason to be considered the fathers of history. These ancient historians used documents, their own observations, and eyewitness accounts to describe events. All ancient peoples considered themselves peoples-historiographers and revered history as a teacher of life. Polybius wrote: "the lessons learned from history most faithfully lead to enlightenment and prepare for engaging in public affairs, the story of the trials of other people is the most intelligible or the only mentor who teaches us to courageously endure the vicissitudes of fate."
And although, over time, people began to doubt that history could teach subsequent generations not to repeat the mistakes of previous ones, the importance of studying history was not disputed. The famous Russian historian VO Klyuchevsky wrote in his reflections on history: "History teaches nothing, but only punishes for ignorance of the lessons."
Culturology primarily interested in the world of art - painting, architecture, sculpture, dance, forms of entertainment and mass performances, institutes of education and science. The subjects of cultural creativity are a) individuals, b) small groups, c) large groups... In this sense, cultural studies covers all types of people unification, but only to the extent that it concerns the creation of cultural values.
Demography studies the population - the whole set of people that make up human society. Demography is primarily interested in how they reproduce, how long they live, why and in what quantity they die, where large masses of people move. She looks at man partly as a natural, partly as a social being. All living beings are born, die and multiply. These processes are influenced primarily by biological laws. For example, science has proven that a person cannot live for more than 110-115 years. This is its biological resource. However, the vast majority of people live to be 60-70 years old. But this is today, and two hundred years ago, the average life expectancy did not exceed 30-40 years. In poor and underdeveloped countries, people live less today than in rich and highly developed ones. In humans, life expectancy is determined by both biological, hereditary characteristics, and social conditions(everyday life, work, rest, food).
3.7 . Social and humanitarian knowledge
Social cognition- this is the knowledge of society. Learning about society is a very difficult process for a number of reasons.
1. Society is the most complex of the objects of knowledge. In public life, all events and phenomena are so complex and diverse, so unlike each other and so intricately intertwined that it is very difficult to find certain patterns in it.
2. In social cognition, not only material (as in natural science), but also ideal, spiritual relations are investigated. These relationships are much more complex, diverse and contradictory than relationships in nature.
3. In social cognition, society acts both as an object and as a subject of cognition: people create their own history, and they also cognize it.
When speaking about the specifics of social cognition, extremes should be avoided. On the one hand, it is impossible to explain the reasons for Russia's historical lagging behind with the help of Einstein's theory of relativity. On the other hand, it cannot be argued that all the methods by which nature is investigated are unsuitable for social science.
The primary and elementary method of cognition is observation... But it differs from the observation that is used in natural science, observing the stars. In social science, cognition concerns animate objects endowed with consciousness. And if, for example, the stars, even after many years of observation, remain completely imperturbable in relation to the observer and his intentions, then in public life everything is different. As a rule, a reverse reaction is found on the part of the object under study, something makes observation impossible from the very beginning, or interrupts it somewhere in the middle, or introduces such interference into it that significantly distorts the results of the study. Therefore, observation that is not included in social science gives insufficiently reliable results. Another method is needed, which is called included surveillance... It is carried out not from the outside, not from the outside in relation to the studied object (social group), but from within it.
For all its importance and necessity, observation in social science demonstrates the same fundamental shortcomings as in other sciences. Observing, we cannot change the object in the direction of interest to us, regulate the conditions and the course of the studied process, reproduce it as many times as is required for the completeness of the observation. Significant disadvantages of observation are largely overcome in experiment.
The experiment is active and transformative. In an experiment, we interfere with the natural course of events. According to V.A. Shtoff, an experiment can be defined as a type of activity undertaken for the purpose of scientific knowledge, the discovery of objective laws and consisting in influencing the object (process) under study by means of special tools and devices. Thanks to the experiment, it is possible: 1) to isolate the investigated object from the influence of secondary, insignificant and obscuring its essence of the phenomena and to study it in a "pure" form; 2) to reproduce the course of the process many times under strictly fixed conditions that can be controlled and accounted for; 3) systematically change, vary, combine various conditions in order to obtain the desired result.
Social experiment has a number of significant features.
1. The social experiment has a concrete historical character. Experiments in the field of physics, chemistry, biology can be repeated at different times, in different countries, for the laws of the development of nature do not depend on the form and type of production relations, or on national and historical characteristics. Social experiments aimed at transforming the economy, the national state structure, the system of upbringing and education, etc., can give in different historical epochs, in different countries, not only different, but also directly opposite results.
2. The object of a social experiment has a much lesser degree of isolation from similar objects that remain outside the experiment and all the influences of a given society as a whole. Here, such reliable insulating devices as vacuum pumps, protective screens, etc., used in the process of a physical experiment, are impossible. This means that a social experiment cannot be carried out with a sufficient degree of approximation to "pure conditions".
3. A social experiment makes increased demands on the observance of "safety precautions" in the process of its implementation in comparison with natural science experiments, where even experiments performed by trial and error are permissible. A social experiment at any point in its course constantly has a direct impact on the well-being, well-being, physical and mental health of people involved in the "experimental" group. Underestimation of any detail, any failure in the course of an experiment can have a detrimental effect on people and no good intentions of its organizers can justify this.
4. A social experiment has no right to be carried out in order to obtain direct theoretical knowledge. To make experiments (experiments) on people is inhuman in the name of any theory. A social experiment is an experiment that states, confirms.
One of the theoretical methods of cognition is historical method research, that is, a method that identifies significant historical facts and the stage of development, which ultimately allows you to create a theory of the object, to reveal the logic and patterns of its development.
Another method is modeling. Modeling is understood as a method of scientific cognition in which research is carried out not on the object of interest to us (original), but on its substitute (analogue), similar to it in certain respects. As in other branches of scientific knowledge, modeling in social science is used when the subject itself is not available for direct study (say, does not exist at all, for example, in predictive research), or this direct study requires colossal costs, or it is impossible due to ethical considerations.
In his goal-setting activity, from which history is formed, man has always sought to comprehend the future. The interest in the future has become especially acute in the modern era in connection with the formation of the information and computer society, in connection with those global problems that call into question the very existence of mankind. Foresight came out on top.
Scientific foresight represents such knowledge about the unknown, which is based on already known knowledge about the essence of the phenomena and processes of interest to us and about their tendencies further development... Scientific foresight does not pretend to absolutely exact and complete knowledge of the future, to its obligatory reliability: even carefully verified and balanced forecasts are justified only with a certain degree of reliability.
Spiritual life of society
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Date the page was created: 2016-02-16