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 objective aspects of nature. • Knowledge constructed: theories and explanations about aggregate and individual behaviour

SS vs Humanities (Oxford’s division) Social Sciences Humanities Anthropology and Museuem Ethnography Classics Archaeology History Global and Area Studies Medieval and Modern Languages Business Oriental Studies Economics Theology and Religion Education English Language & Literature Geography and the Environment Linguistics, Philology and Phonetics Government (Public Policy) Music International Development Philosophy Internet Art Law Politics and International Relations Social Policy and Intervention Sociology Which subject would you place into a different department?

Distinguishing between SS and Humanities • From the example of how Oxford divides SS and Humanities (probably more for admin purposes than any strict rule on what each entails), it is not always clear whether a subject should be considered a social science or a humanities subject. • Cambridge: ‘lumps’ both into “School of Humanities and Social Sciences” • LSE: calls itself “one of the foremost social science universities in the world”; it has departments like “Department of International History” and “Department of Mathematics” – both of which were not under Oxford’s division.

Distinguishing SS and Humanities • Professor Iain McLean, Chair of Section S5 (Political Science and related subjects) at the British Academy, Senior Research Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford – “What is Social Science?” • SS – the scientific study of human beings • “What distinguishes the social sciences from the humanities is not so much subject-matter as techniques” • But this division is “not hard and fast” as: + 1) humanities scholars also “use scientific methods in, for instance, statistical analysis of large bodies of data, or carbon-dating of archaeological remains” • Probably referring to disciplines like History + 2) “some social scientists are interested in narratives, eg of the development of international institutions, or customs in traditional societies”

• “So: the key difference is that humanities are (mostly) interested in the unique; social sciences are (mostly) interested in the general.” • Note the caveat of “mostly” – suggests a level of ambiguity • One particular approach in SS - Interpretivist SS – is an approach that is more interested in the unique

Similarities and Differences between NS and SS • What makes SS a science? • Falsifiability – e.g. the Law of Demand states that at higher prices, buyers will buy less of a good • Usage of the Scientific Method (observation, hypothesis, experimentation, law, theory): both NS and SS • But social/human phenomena are not the same as natural phenomena: free will! • Consequence: the extent that the SM can be applied to SS is limited • “But what about the problem of free will, you may say? Human beings are autonomous, thinking individuals, not to be analysed statistically as if they were physical particles or viruses. Well, we can’t predict how an individual human will behave (particle physics may say that about their subject, too) but we can make valid generalisations – about how most people behave in response to a price increase, or to a visual stimulus, for instance” – Iain McLean, “What is Social Science?”

•TOK reading