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The document discusses the historical background and development of social sciences. It notes that social sciences emerged later than natural sciences and have their roots in ancient Greek philosophy. Key developments included the scientific revolution in the 16th-17th centuries which challenged religious authority and dogma. Figures like Comte, Durkheim, Marx, and Weber are identified as founding thinkers in fields like sociology who advocated applying scientific principles to the study of human society. The document also discusses how increased commerce, travel, and secularization of learning contributed to the growth of social sciences as a way to study changing social conditions.

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172 views9 pages

Ucsp Week 1 Reviewer

The document discusses the historical background and development of social sciences. It notes that social sciences emerged later than natural sciences and have their roots in ancient Greek philosophy. Key developments included the scientific revolution in the 16th-17th centuries which challenged religious authority and dogma. Figures like Comte, Durkheim, Marx, and Weber are identified as founding thinkers in fields like sociology who advocated applying scientific principles to the study of human society. The document also discusses how increased commerce, travel, and secularization of learning contributed to the growth of social sciences as a way to study changing social conditions.

Uploaded by

Chelo
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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UCSP

Week 1

THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF GROWTH OF THE


SOCIAL SCIENCES

*Social sciences were the last to develop after the natural sciences.
*Origin of social sciences can be traced back as far as ancient Greek
philosophers such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.
*Before the modern social sciences, the study of society and politics were
based on social and political philosophy.
*Philosophy is distinct from science. If science was not develop it will
remain under the wings of philosophy and theology.

WHAT IS SOCIAL SCIENCE?


A branch of science that deals with the intuition and functioning of human
society and with the interpersonal relationship of individuals as member of
society.
*Social science has a bunch of branches.

Science seeks the truth by observation, it explains the causes behind all
events and phenomena.
After an investigation a scientist can form a conclusion.

*Before the modern sciences, it was slowed down by the church.


*But after the breakdown of the power of the church and French revolution
grew steadily and rapidly.
The development of the social sciences in the modern period was
made possible because of the pivotal events that shaped the world.

Science Humanities

Pure
Visual Arts
Science

Applied Performing
Science Arts

Social
Region
Science

UNPRECENTED GROWTH OF SCIENCE


*Nicolaus Copemicus started the scientific revolution.
*Nicolaus challenged the classical accepted geocentric model of
Ptolemy in which “the earth” (geo) is the center of universe. He
proposed the heliocentric model in which the “sun (helio)” is in the
center.
*Scientific revolution changes the belief and thought, social, and
institutional changes. It is also culminated from the works of Isaac
Newton, Sir Francis Bacon and Rene Descartes.

Isaac Newton, proposed universal laws of motion and a


mechanical model of universe.

Francis Bacon, established the supremacy of reason over


imagination.
Rene Descartes, the father of modern philosophy and advocated
the use of philosophical analysis to arrive at truths rather than
basing them on dogmas.

*With the coming of the Scientific revolution and the Age of


Reason in the 16th and 17th centuries, the nature was to be
controlled, “bound into service and made a slave”
*From the medieval cosmology or model of the universe that
defines as divinely ordained, people shifted to the model of the
universe as a big machine.

THE SECULARIZATION OF LEARNING AND EDUCATON


• The modern period marked the triumph of scientific method over
religious dogmas and theological thinking.
The triumph of reason and science over religious authority began with
the Reformation.
• The Protestant movement led by Martin Luther eroded the power of
the Roman Catholic Church.
• It challenged the infallibility of the pope and democratized the
interpretation of the Bible.
Then there was the Enlightenment which is largely a cultural
movement emphasizing rationality as well as economic and political
theories.
• In the Age of Enlightenment, thinkers like Immanuel Kant challenged
the use of metaphysics or quest of absolute truth from traditional
theology.
*Livres des Merveilles du Monde = recorded the travels of Marco
Polo. This book introduced Asians and China to Europeans it also
inspired the mission of Christopher Columbus that brought him to
America in his quest to Asia.
*The travel of Marco Polo and Magellan’s expedition shows that
the Europeans had no knowledge before.
• These travelogues did not only inspired merchants and
governments to explore but also social scientist.
• Charles Tilly believed that commerce and trade are major factors
that change European history and changed the direction of the social
science.
• Anthropologists compares the life in rural and urban, the civilized
life and supposed “savage” life of non-western people.

THE RISE OF INDIVIDUALISM


• The intensification of commerce and trade gradually replaced the
barter system with the introduction of money and banking system.
• Banking system provided merchants and capitalists the leverage to
extend credit and transactions.
• The introduction of money enabled people to deal with others even
without personally meeting.
• Money made the reduction of human interaction to mere business
like transaction devoid of any warmth and personal touch.

THE BIRTH OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AS A RESPONSE TO THE


SOCIAL TURMOIL OF T HE MODERN PERIOD

SOCIOLOGY – a branch of social science that deals with the scientific


study of human interactions, social groups and institutions, whole societies,
and human world as such.
- A science that studies about the relationship between individuals and
the society as the develop and change in history.
- It also pursues the investigation of the emergence of stable
interactions.

Auguste Comte
French philosopher and mathematician, is the founding father of
sociology.
• Coined the term sociology but originally used the term “social
physics”.
• One of the founders of positivism.
• The basic affirmations of positivism are (1) that
all knowledge regarding matters of fact is based on the “positive”
data of experience and (2) that beyond the realm of fact is that of
pure logic and pure mathematics.
• Positivism is the thought that science and its method are the only
ways of knowing things.
Harriet Martineau
Writer and reformist and considered as the founding mother of
sociology.
• Despite of her physical disabilities, Martineau travelled a lot
especially in the United States and wrote her travelogue.
• In her accounts expressed in How to Observe Morals and
Manners, deep sociological insights that we now call ethnographic
narratives are fully conveyed.
• She wrote political economy and was influenced by J.S. Mill, David
Ricardo, and Adam Smith.

Karl Max
• Marx introduced the materialist analysis of history, which discounts
religious and metaphysical (spiritual) explanation of historical
development.
• He advocated the use of scientific method to uncover deep structural
tendencies that underlie great social transitions, for instance from
agricultural to modern industrial capitalist today.
• Marx belonged to the realist tradition of social science.
• He combined revolutionary activity with scholarly passion

Emile Durkheim
• Durkheim defended sociology from being an independent field from
psychology.
• As social realist, Durkheim believed that society possesses a reality
of sui generis (a class by itself, unique) independent of individuals
and institutions that compose it.
• His main contributions are in the field of sociology of religion,
education, and deviance.
• He proposed that society has two types of solidarity: Organic and
Mechanical.
• He is known for his study on Anomie.
• Durkheim became interested in scientific approach to society very
early on his career, which meant the first of many conflicts with the
French academic system, which had no social science curriculum at
the time.

Max Weber
• Stressed the role of rationalization in the development of the society.
• Rationalization refers to the disenchantment of the world.
• Science began to replace religion, people also adopted a scientific or
rational attitude.
• One of the most significant application of scientific worldview to
human life is found in bureaucracy.
• Weber saw that bureaucracy will eventually curtail human freedom.
• In bureaucracy, efficiency is considered as the supreme value, other
values such as personal relationships are discarded.

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