Editing Social science (section)

==History==
{{Main|History of the social sciences}}
The history of the social sciences began in the [[Age of Enlightenment]] after 1651,<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S3zZ18tt3gkC|title=The Social Science Encyclopedia|last=Kuper|first=Adam|date=1996|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-0-415-10829-4|language=en}}</ref> which saw a revolution within [[natural philosophy]], changing the basic framework by which individuals understood what was scientific. Social sciences came forth from the [[moral philosophy]] of the time and were influenced by the [[Age of Revolution]]s, such as the [[Industrial Revolution]] and the [[French Revolution]].<ref name="Kuper1985" /> The ''social sciences'' developed from the sciences ([[experimental science|experimental]] and [[applied science|applied]]), or the systematic knowledge-bases or prescriptive practices, relating to the [[social improvement]] of a [[community|group of interacting entities]].<ref name="SocialColumbian1897"/><ref name="Peck1897"/>

The beginnings of the social sciences in the 18th century are reflected in the [[Encyclopédie|grand encyclopedia of Diderot]], with articles from [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]] and other pioneers. The growth of the social sciences is also reflected in other specialized encyclopedias. The term "social science" was coined in French by [[Victor de Riqueti, marquis de Mirabeau|Mirabeau]] in 1767, before becoming a distinct conceptual field in the nineteenth century.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lalevée |first1=Thomas |title=Three Versions of Social Science in Late Eighteenth-Century France |journal=Modern Intellectual History |date=30 May 2023 |volume=20 |issue=4 |pages=1023–1043 |doi=10.1017/S1479244323000100 }}</ref> Social science was influenced by positivism,<ref name="Kuper1985" /> focusing on knowledge based on actual positive sense experience and avoiding the negative; [[Metaphysics|metaphysical]] speculation was avoided. [[Auguste Comte]] used the term {{lang|fr|science sociale}} to describe the field, taken from the ideas of [[Charles Fourier]]; Comte also referred to the field as [[social physics]].<ref name="Kuper1985" /><ref>According to Comte, the ''social physics'' field was similar to that of [[natural sciences]].</ref>

Following this period, five paths of development sprang forth in the social sciences, influenced by Comte in other fields.<ref name="Kuper1985" /> One route that was taken was the rise of social research. Large [[statistical survey]]s were undertaken in various parts of the [[United States]] and [[Europe]]. Another route undertaken was initiated by [[Émile Durkheim]], studying "social facts", and [[Vilfredo Pareto]], opening metatheoretical ideas and individual theories. A third means developed, arising from the methodological dichotomy present, in which [[social phenomena]] were identified with and understood; this was championed by figures such as [[Max Weber]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Weber |first=Max |title=Methodology of Social Sciences |year=2017 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-315-12444-5 |doi=10.4324/9781315124445 }}</ref> The fourth route taken, based in economics, was developed and furthered economic knowledge as a [[hard science]]. The last path was the [[correlation]] of knowledge and [[Value (ethics)|social values]]; the [[antipositivism]] and [[verstehen]] sociology of Max Weber firmly demanded this distinction. In this route, theory (description) and prescription were non-overlapping formal discussions of a subject.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Tucker |first=William T. |date=1965 |title=Max Weber's 'Verstehen' |journal=The Sociological Quarterly |volume=6 |issue=2 |pages=157–165 |doi=10.1111/j.1533-8525.1965.tb01649.x |jstor=4105245 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Yadav |first=Yogendra |date=1986 |title=Political 'Science': Positivist Method and Philosophic Critiques |journal=The Indian Journal of Political Science |volume=47 |issue=4 |pages=502–517 |jstor=41855267 }}</ref>

The foundation of social sciences in the West implies conditioned relationships between progressive and traditional spheres of knowledge. In some contexts, such as the Italian one, sociology slowly affirms itself and experiences the difficulty of affirming a strategic knowledge beyond philosophy and theology.<ref>[[Cf.]] {{citation|first=Guglielmo |last=Rinzivillo |title=La scienza e l'oggetto. Autocritica del sapere strategico |location=[[Milan]] |editor-first=Franco |editor-last=Angeli |year=2010 |pages=51–  |isbn=978-88-568-2487-2}}</ref>

Around the start of the 20th century, [[Enlightenment philosophy]] was challenged in various quarters. After the use of classical theories since the end of the scientific revolution, various fields substituted mathematics studies for experimental studies and examining equations to build a theoretical structure. The development of social science subfields became very quantitative in methodology. The [[interdisciplinary]] and cross-disciplinary nature of [[Scientific method|scientific inquiry]] into human behaviour, social and environmental factors affecting it, made many of the natural sciences interested in some aspects of social science methodology.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Vessuri |first1=Hebe |title=Ethical Challenges for the Social Sciences on the Threshold of the 21st Century |journal=Current Sociology |date=January 2002 |volume=50 |issue=1 |pages=135–150 |doi=10.1177/0011392102050001010 }}</ref> Examples of boundary blurring include emerging disciplines like social research of [[medicine]], [[sociobiology]], [[neuropsychology]], [[bioeconomics (biophysical)|bioeconomics]] and the [[history of science|history]] and [[sociology of science]]. Increasingly, quantitative research and qualitative methods are being integrated in the study of human action and its implications and consequences. In the first half of the 20th century, statistics became a free-standing discipline of applied mathematics.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Turner |first=Stephen |date=1987 |title=Review of The History of Statistics: The Measurement of Uncertainty Before 1900 |journal=American Journal of Sociology |volume=92 |issue=6 |pages=1510–1512 |doi=10.1086/228675 |jstor=2779847 }}</ref> Statistical methods were used confidently.

In the contemporary period, [[Karl Popper]] and [[Talcott Parsons]] influenced the furtherance of the social sciences.<ref name="Kuper1985" /> Researchers continue to search for a unified consensus on what methodology might have the power and refinement to connect a proposed "grand theory" with the various midrange theories that, with considerable success, continue to provide usable frameworks for massive, growing data banks; for more, see [[consilience]]. The social sciences will for the foreseeable future be composed of different zones in the research of, and sometimes distinct in approach toward, the field.<ref name="Kuper1985" />

The term "social science" may refer either to the specific ''sciences of society'' established by thinkers such as Comte, Durkheim, Marx, and Weber, or more generally to all disciplines outside of "noble science" and [[arts]]. By the late 19th century, the academic social sciences were constituted of five fields: [[jurisprudence]] and amendment of the [[law]], [[education]], [[health]], [[economy]] and [[trade]], and [[art]].<ref name="SocialColumbian1897" />

Around the start of the 21st century, the expanding domain of economics in the social sciences has been described as [[economic imperialism (economics)|economic imperialism]].<ref name="Imperialism"/>

A distinction is usually drawn between the social sciences and the [[humanities]]. Classicist [[Allan Bloom]] writes in ''[[The Closing of the American Mind]]'' (1987):
{{blockquote|Social science and humanities have a mutual contempt for one another, the former looking down on the latter as unscientific, the latter regarding the former as [[Philistinism|philistine]]. [...] The difference comes down to the fact that social science really wants to be predictive, meaning that man is predictable, while the humanities say that he is not.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bloom |first=Allan |title=The Closing of the American Mind |date=2012 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-1-4516-8320-2 |pages=357}}</ref>}}