Types of social sciences and what they study. Social Sciences. The formation of social sciences

Society is such a complex object that science alone cannot study it. Only by combining the efforts of many sciences can we fully and consistently describe and study the most complex formation that 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 subdisciplines, sections, directions, and scientific schools.

Social science, having emerged later than many other sciences, incorporates their concepts and specific results, statistics, tabular data, graphs and conceptual diagrams, and theoretical categories.

The entire 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. It can be said differently, the subject of social sciences is society, the subject of humanities is culture. The main subject of 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 and form a kind of scientific union. Adjacent to it is a group of other related disciplines: philosophy, history, art history, cultural studies, literary studies. They are classified as 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 very conditional. At their intersection, interdisciplinary sciences are constantly emerging, for example, social anthropology appeared at the intersection of sociology and anthropology, and economic psychology appeared at the intersection of economics and 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 get acquainted more thoroughly with the specifics of the leading social sciences:

Economy- a science that studies the principles of organizing the economic activities of people, the relations of production, exchange, distribution and consumption that are formed in every society, formulates the grounds for the rational behavior of producers and consumers of goods. Economics also studies the behavior of large masses of people in a market situation. In small and large - in public and private life - people cannot 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 on a 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, and the relationships that arise in the process of carrying out government activities.

Psychology- the science of the laws, mechanisms and facts of the mental life of humans and animals. The main theme of psychological thought in antiquity and the Middle Ages is the problem of the soul. Psychologists study stable and repetitive behavior in individual behavior. The focus is on 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, occupational psychology, creativity 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 primitive tribes that have survived today from primitive times in the lost corners of the planet: their customs, traditions, culture, behavior patterns.

Social Psychology studies small group(family, group of friends, sports team). Social psychology is a frontier discipline. She was formed at the intersection of sociology and psychology, taking on tasks that her parents were unable to solve. It turned out that a large society does not directly influence 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 lives. In general, we live in small, not large worlds - in a specific house, in a specific family, in a specific company, etc. The small world sometimes influences us even more than the big one. That is why science appeared, which took it closely and very seriously.

Story- one of the most important sciences in the system of social and humanitarian knowledge. The object of its study is man and his activities throughout the existence of human civilization. The word “history” is of Greek origin and means “research”, “search”. Some scholars believed that the object of studying history is the past. The famous French historian M. Blok categorically objected to this. “The very idea that the past as such can be an object of science is absurd.”

The emergence of historical science dates back to the times of ancient civilizations. The “father of history” is considered to be the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, who compiled a work dedicated to the Greco-Persian wars. However, this is hardly fair, since Herodotus used not so much historical data as legends, legends and myths. And his work cannot be considered completely reliable. There are much more reasons to consider Thucydides, Polybius, Arrian, Publius Cornelius Tacitus, and Ammianus Marcellinus 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 historiographers and revered history as a teacher of life. Polybius wrote: “lessons drawn from history most surely lead to enlightenment and prepare us for engaging in public affairs; the story of the trials of other people is the most intelligible or the only teacher that 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 most famous Russian historian V.O. Klyuchevsky wrote in his reflections on history: “History teaches nothing, but only punishes for ignorance of the lessons.”

Culturology I am primarily interested in the world of art - painting, architecture, sculpture, dance, forms of entertainment and mass spectacles, institutions 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 associations of people, but only to the extent that it concerns the creation of cultural values.

Demography studies population - the entire multitude of people who make up human society. Demography is primarily interested in how they reproduce, how long they live, why and in what numbers they die, and where large masses of people move. She looks at man partly as a natural, partly as a social being. All living things are born, die and reproduce. These processes are influenced primarily by biological laws. For example, science has proven that a person cannot live 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. Even today, people in poor and underdeveloped countries live less than in rich and highly developed countries. In humans, life expectancy is determined both by biological and hereditary characteristics, and by social conditions (life, work, rest, nutrition).

3.7 . Social and humanitarian knowledge

Social cognition- this is knowledge of society. Understanding society is a very complex process for a number of reasons.

1. Society is the most complex of the objects of knowledge. In social life, all events and phenomena are so complex and diverse, so different from each other and so intricately intertwined that it is very difficult to detect certain patterns in it.

2. In social cognition, not only material (as in natural science), but also ideal, spiritual relationships are studied. These relationships are much more complex, diverse and contradictory than connections 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 know it.

When talking 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 lag using Einstein’s theory of relativity. On the other hand, it cannot be argued that all the methods by which nature is studied 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 when observing the stars. In social science, cognition concerns animate, endowed with consciousness objects. And if, for example, the stars, even after many years of observation of them, remain completely unperturbed in relation to the observer and his intentions, then in public life everything is different. As a rule, a reverse reaction is detected on the part of the object being studied, something that makes observation impossible from the very beginning, or interrupts it somewhere in the middle, or introduces interference into it that significantly distorts the results of the study. Therefore, non-participant observation in social science does not provide sufficiently reliable results. Another method is needed, which is called participant observation. It is carried out not from the outside, not from the outside in relation to the object being studied (social group), but from within it.

For all its significance and necessity, observation in social science demonstrates the same fundamental shortcomings as in other sciences. While observing, we cannot change the object in the direction that interests us, regulate the conditions and course of the process being studied, or reproduce it as many times as required to complete the observation. Significant shortcomings 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. Stoff, an experiment can be defined as a type of activity undertaken for the purpose of scientific knowledge, the discovery of objective laws and consisting of influencing the object (process) under study using special tools and devices. Thanks to the experiment, it is possible to: 1) isolate the object under study from the influence of side, insignificant phenomena that obscure its essence and study it in its “pure” form; 2) repeatedly reproduce the course of the process under strictly fixed, controllable and accountable conditions; 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 is of a concrete historical nature. Experiments in the field of physics, chemistry, biology can be repeated in different eras, in different countries, because the laws of natural development 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 not only different, but also directly opposite results in different historical eras, in different countries.

2. The object of a social experiment has a much lesser degree of isolation from similar objects remaining outside the experiment and from all the influences of a given society as a whole. Here, such reliable isolating 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 places increased demands on compliance with “safety precautions” during its implementation compared to natural science experiments, where even experiments carried out by trial and error are acceptable. 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 the people involved in the “experimental” group. Underestimation of any detail, any failure during the experiment can have a detrimental effect on people and no good intentions of its organizers can justify this.

4. A social experiment may not be conducted for the purpose of obtaining direct theoretical knowledge. Conducting experiments (experiments) on people is inhumane in the name of any theory. A social experiment is an ascertaining, confirming experiment.

One of the theoretical methods of cognition is historical method research, i.e., a method that reveals significant historical facts and stages of development, which ultimately makes it possible to create a theory of the object, revealing the logic and patterns of its development.

Another method is modeling. Modeling is understood as a method of scientific knowledge in which research is carried out not on the object of interest to us (the 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 yet exist at all, for example, in predictive studies), or this direct study requires enormous costs, or it is impossible due to ethical considerations.

In his goal-setting activities, from which history is formed, man has always strived to comprehend the future. Interest in the future has especially intensified 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 humanity. 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 that interest us and about the trends in their further development. Scientific foresight does not claim absolutely accurate and complete knowledge of the future, or its mandatory reliability: even carefully verified and balanced forecasts are justified only with a certain degree of reliability.

Spiritual life of society

Under science It is customary to understand systematically organized knowledge based on facts obtained through empirical research methods based on the measurement of real phenomena. There is no consensus on which disciplines belong to the social sciences. There are various classifications of these social sciences.

Depending on their connection with practice, sciences are divided into:

1) fundamental (they 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 fields).

If we adhere to this classification, the boundaries of these groups of sciences are conditional and fluid.

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.

Philosophy is the most ancient and fundamental science, establishing the most general patterns of development of nature and society. Philosophy performs a cognitive function in social science. Ethics is the theory of morality, its essence and impact on the development of society and people's lives. Morality and morality play a big role in motivating human behavior, his ideas about nobility, honesty, and courage. Aesthetics- the doctrine of the development of art and artistic creativity, the way of embodying the ideals of humanity in painting, music, architecture and other areas of culture

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 attribute sociology, psychology, social psychology, economics, political science and anthropology. These sciences have much in common, they are closely related to each other and form a kind of scientific union.

Adjacent to them is a group of related sciences, which are classified as humanitarian. This philosophy, language, art history, literary criticism.

Social sciences operate quantitative(mathematical and statistical) methods, and humanitarian - quality(descriptive-evaluative).

Social Sciences

Philosophy. Philosophy studies society from the point of view of its essence: structure, ideological foundations, the relationship between spiritual and material factors in it. Since it is society that generates, develops and transmits meanings, philosophy that studies meanings pays central attention to society and its problems. Any philosophical study necessarily touches on the topic of society, since human thought always unfolds in a social context that predetermines its structure.

Story. History examines the progressive development of societies, giving a description of the phases of their development, structure, structure, features and characteristics. Different schools of historical knowledge place emphasis on different aspects of history. The focus of the classical historical school is religion, culture, worldview, the social and political structure of society, a description of the periods of its development and the most important events and characters in social history.

Anthropology. Anthropology – literally, “the science of man” – typically studies archaic societies, in which it seeks to find the key to understanding more developed cultures. According to the evolutionist theory, history is a single linear and unidirectional flow of development of society, etc. “primitive peoples” or “savages” live to this day in the same social conditions as all of humanity in ancient times. Therefore, by studying “primitive societies”, one can obtain “reliable” information about the initial stages of the formation of societies that went through other, later and “developed” stages in their development.

Sociology. Sociology is a discipline whose main object is society itself, studied as an integral phenomenon.

Political science. Political science studies society in its political dimension, exploring the development and change of power systems and institutions of society, the transformation of the political system of states, and the change of political ideologies.

Culturology. Culturology views society as a cultural phenomenon. In this perspective, social content manifests itself through culture generated and developed by society. Society in cultural studies acts as a subject of culture and at the same time as the field on which cultural creativity unfolds and in which cultural phenomena are interpreted. Culture, understood in a broad sense, covers the entire set of social values that create a collective portrait of the identity of each specific society.

Jurisprudence. Jurisprudence primarily examines social relations in the legal aspect, which they acquire when fixed in legislative acts. Legal systems and institutions reflect the prevailing trends in social development and combine ideological, political, historical, cultural and value attitudes of society.

Economy. Economics studies the economic structure of various societies, examines the impact of economic activity on social institutions, structures and relationships. The Marxist method of political economy makes economic analysis the main tool in the study of society, reducing social research to clarifying its economic background.

Social Science. Social science summarizes the approaches of all social disciplines. The discipline “Social Science” contains elements of all the above-described scientific disciplines that help to understand and correctly interpret basic social meanings, processes and institutions.

What does social studies study?

The object of study of social science is society. Society is a very complex system that is subject to various laws. Naturally, there is no one science that could cover all aspects of society, so several sciences study it. Each science studies one aspect of the development of society: economics, social relations, development paths, and others.

Social science - a general name for sciences that study society as a whole and social processes.

Every science hasobject and subject.

Object of science - a phenomenon of objective reality that science studies.

Subject of science - A person, a group of people cognizing an object.

Sciences are divided into three groups.

Science:

Exact sciences	Natural Sciences	Public (humanitarian)
Mathematics, computer science, logic and others	Chemistry, physics, biology, astronomy and others	Philosophy, economics, sociology and others

Society is studied by social sciences (humanities).

The main difference between social sciences and humanities:

	Social Sciences	Humanitarian sciences
Main object of study	Society

Social (humanitarian) sciences that study society and man:

archaeology, economics, history, cultural studies, linguistics, political science, psychology, sociology, law, ethnography, philosophy, ethics, aesthetics.

Archeology- a science that studies the past from material sources.

Economy– the science of the economic activities of society.

Story- the science of the past of humanity.

Cultural studies- a science that studies the culture of society.

Linguistics- the science of language.

Political science- the science of politics, society, the relationship between people, society and the state.

Psychology– the science of the development and functioning of the human psyche.

Sociology- the science of the laws of formation and development of social systems, groups, individuals.

Right – a set of laws and rules of behavior in society.

Ethnography- a science that studies the life and culture of peoples and nations.

Philosophy- the science of the universal laws of social development.

Ethics- the science of morality.

Aesthetics - the science of beauty.

Sciences study societies in the narrow and broad senses.

Society in the narrow sense:

1. The entire population of the Earth, the totality of all peoples.

2. Historical stage of human development (feudal society, slave society).

3. Country, state (French society, Russian society).

4. Uniting people for some purpose (animal lovers club, soldiers’ society

mothers).

5. A circle of people united by a common position, origin, interests (high society).

6. Methods of interaction between the authorities and the population of the country (democratic society, totalitarian society)

Society in the broad sense - a part of the material world isolated from nature, but closely connected with it, which includes ways of interaction between people and forms of their unification.