The humanities and social sciences are a complex of many disciplines, the subject of study of which is both society as a whole and a person as a member. These include political science, philosophy, history, sociology, philology, psychology, economics, pedagogy, law, cultural studies, ethnology and other theoretical knowledge.
Specialists in these areas are trained and graduated from the Institute of Social Sciences, which can be a separate educational institution, and can be a unit of any humanitarian university.
Subject of study of social sciences
First of all, they explore society. Society is seen as an integrity that has developed historically and is a union of people that have developed as a result of joint actions and have their own system of relations. The presence of various groups in society allows us to see how individuals are interdependent on each other.
Social sciences: research methods
Each of the above disciplines applies research methods specific to it. So, political science, exploring society, operates with the category of "power". Culturology considers as an aspect of society, having value, culture and forms of its manifestation. Economics explores the life of society from the perspective of organizing farming.
To this end, she uses categories such as market, money, demand, product, supply and others. Sociology considers society as an ever-evolving system of relations 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.
The formation of social sciences
In ancient times, social sciences were mainly included in philosophy, since it studied both man and the whole of society. Only history and jurisprudence were partially distinguished into separate disciplines. The first social theory was developed by Aristotle and Plato. In the Middle Ages, social sciences were considered within the framework of theology as knowledge of undifferentiated and embracing absolutely everything. Their development was influenced by such thinkers as Gregory Palamas, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, John Damascene.
Starting from the New Age (from the 17th century), some social sciences (psychology, cultural studies, political science, sociology, economics) are completely separated from philosophy. In higher education institutions, faculties and departments are opened in these subjects, specialized almanacs, magazines, etc. are published.
Natural and social sciences: distinction and similarity
This problem was resolved ambiguously in history. So, the followers of Kant divided all sciences into two types: those who study nature and culture. Representatives of such a trend as the “philosophy of life” generally sharply contrasted history with nature. They believed that culture is the result of the spiritual activity of mankind, and you can understand it only by experiencing and realizing the values of people of those eras, the motives of their behavior. At the present stage, the social sciences and the natural sciences are not only opposed, but also have common ground. 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.
