RI Social Science Lecture 2023

Social science

Overview • Past Year Questions • What is Social Science (SS)? • SS vs Humanities • Similarities and Differences between SS and the Natural Sciences (NS) • TOK reading • Quantitative vs Qualitative • Should we apply the SM to SS?

Past Year Questions (incl. History & humanities) 1. 'The social sciences are not really sciences, because they do not construct their knowledge according to scientific methods.' Discuss. (2008 A Levels) 2. Discuss critically the extent to which the investigator’s opinions and beliefs can influence enquiries in the field of either history or science. (2009 A Levels) 3. Given its failure to predict economic crises, such as the 2008 downturn, economics does not deserve to be called a field of knowledge. Critically evaluate this view. (2011 A Levels) 4. The sciences are more successful than the humanities because they are based on empirical facts as opposed to opinions. Discuss. (2011 A Levels) 5. Critically assess the view that we can never know what happened in the past. (2012 A Levels) 6. *We will never know whether playing violent computer games causes people to be violent.' Critically assess this view with reference to knowledge construction in social science. (2013 A Levels) 7. *Critically assess the view that good political decisions are the product of luck and not knowledge of what is for the best. (2014 A Levels) 8. To what extent do we learn about the world through literature? (2014 A Levels) 9. History is written by the winners.' Critically assess this view. (2014 A Levels) 10. Critically discuss the claim that quantitative research is more significant than qualitative research in the social sciences. (2016 A Levels) 11. To what extent can society and behaviour be studied scientifically? (2017 A Levels) 12. Critically assess the view that we cannot know any historical facts. (2017 A Levels) 13. Humans are free therefore their behaviour cannot be explained through social science research.' Critically discuss this view. (2019 A Levels) 14. Assess the extent to which science gives us knowledge of the world. (2020 A Levels)Do you see any patterns in the questions?

What is Social Science (SS)? • A.k.a. human sciences • A group of academic disciplines that study the human aspects of the world. • Aim: a rational and systematic understanding of human society. • Method of Construction: Emphasises the use of the Scientific Method and rigorous standards of evidence, both quantitative and qualitative + Quantitative e.g. – surveys, questionnaires, experiments, modelling, statistics + Qualitative e.g. – interviews, focus group discussions, participant observation, open-ended questionnaires • Different from the arts and humanities (though how to draw the line is disputable) • Sometimes referred to as soft sciences for studying both the inter-subjective or structural aspects of society, are sometime referred to as soft sciences. • In contrast to hard sciences, which focus exclusively on obj