SELECTION ZA CHUO 2011 - 2012 ZANUKIA (TCU) ~ Hassbaby's (Mapacha)

If all social sciences, as their lowest common factor, are interested in or look at the human society, what are their points of departure?  Take for example the discipline of;

i.                     Philosophy

ii.                   Economics

iii.                 Anthropology

iv.                 Sociology

What tool of analysis /study have these disciplines traditionally used?

RESPONSE

Social Sciences, sciences concerned with the origin and development of human society, and the institutions, relationships, and ideas involved in social life. Included in the social sciences are anthropology, sociology, political science, economics, law, psychology, criminology, and social psychology. Encarta,(2009).

All social sciences, including, Philosophy, Economics, Anthropology and Sociology as their lowest common factor, they are interested in or look at the human society, even though there is point where they don’t come together (points of departure) mean while some of them like those mentioned before traditionally they have unique ways and tools that they use to make analysis of their work .starting with philosophy to sociology

 (i) Philosophy

The word "philosophy" comes from the Greek philosophia which literally means "love of wisdom .Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Sometimes philosophers deal with questions of truth and sometimes with questions of goodness; sometimes they offer consolation for life’s sorrows and sometimes they are purely pragmatic. (Blackburn.S, 1994).

Philosophy is the analysis and interpretation of values and standards. Hence the components of philosophy can be conceived to be as Empiricism: establishes what values and standards exist, Psychology and epistemology: indicate how values and standards are generated, Metaphysics: indicates where values and standards will take the individual and society, Conceptual analysis: this is the arena of discourse on values and standards, Ethics: defines prescriptive or directive values and standards, and how to apply them. Directive values and standards are criteria that are used to direct one’s life ,Aesthetics: the appreciation of non-directive values, Science: this should be the arena for understanding how mind can be ethically used to master matter, Politics: this should be applied metaphysics and psychology, the study of the evolutionary direction of society. (Feldman .A, 1987)

The point where philosophy seems to departure from the other field of human society is that Philosophy is the form of enquiry process of analysis, criticism, interpretation and speculation. (Musgrave.1987). Also philosophy discusses the basic make up of things like the nature of the world and Reality. Otherwise philosophy is said to be the mother of social sciences.

The main subjects of ancient philosophy are: understanding the fundamental causes and principles of the universe; Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, general systematic approach and its reliance on rational argument. Therefore every institution in the society is based on philosophical ideas, whether that institution is the law, government, religion, the family, marriage, industries, business or education.

The Tools of analysis  that philosophy use are ,Empirical study ,Logical ,Enquiry, Inductive method of investigation and Critical Reasoning as a the superior to experience  sources of knowledge and the validity of sense. Perception must be proved for more certain principles. Lastly Empiricism is the other important tool of experience and sense of perception as a source of basic knowledge

(ii) Economy

Economy is a social institution that organizes the production, distribution and consumption of goods and services. Goods and services are the resources that individual, groups and organizations and nations need to survive. (Hughes, 2005)

Economy is a universal institution, found in every culture and society. It shapes other institutions, and it affects our behavior.  At the same time it is also influenced by other institutions. (Schaffer & Lamm, 1992)

Economy is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Political economy was the earlier name for the subject, but economists in the latter 19th century suggested 'economics' as a shorter term for 'economic science' that also avoided a narrow political-interest connotation and as similar in form to 'mathematics', 'ethics', and so forth

Economics is one social science among several and has fields bordering on other areas, including economic geography, economic history, public choice, energy economics, cultural economics, Economists study trade, production and consumption decisions, such as those that occur in a traditional marketplace.

Different economical systems. There are mainly two different economical systems in today’s society; the socialist economy and the capitalist economy. No society is purely one or another of these two systems, but they use more or less of both ideologies.

The socialist economy In the socialist economy, the government directly controls the economy, many setting prices and wages and decides what will be produced. (Hughes, 2005).The socialist economical idea departures from Karl Marx’s and Friedrich Engel’s idea to eliminate economic exploitation of workers. They believed that the main purpose with a national economy was to meet people’s needs rather than maximize profit and therefore they thought that the government should provide social service programs such as education, healthcare and housing. In this way neither inequalities nor social classes will exist in the society. (Schaffer & Lamm, 1992)

The capitalist economy .In capitalist economy the government oversees and sets parameters for the economy, but in many ways leaves the economy alone allowing the market to decide what the economy will do. In this factor people are motivated by profit. For example in business and corporations, profit tends to be the bottom line and managers do whatever is necessary to maximize it. (H. Lauer & C. Lauer 2006) Karl Marx and Max Weber have helped us to unravel the nature of social stratification. Marx believed that the key to social stratification in capitalist societies is the division between those who own and control the crucial means of production

Tools of analysis

The tools that are normally used to measure economy are mathematical tools such as statistics and gross domestic product (GDP) and Gross national product (GNP).Otherwise you can measure a society’s economy by looking at the production, distribution and consumption of their goods and services

Contemporary economics uses mathematics. Economists draw on the tools of calculus, linear algebra, statistics, game theory, and computer science. Professional economists are expected to be familiar with these tools, while a minority specializes in econometrics and mathematical methods.

Economic analysis may be applied throughout society, as in business, finance, health care, and government, also to such diverse subjects as crime, education, the family, law, politics, religion, social institutions, war, and science. At the turn of the 21st century, the expanding domain of economics in the social sciences has been described as economic imperialism. (Blaug.M.2007).

(iii) Anthropology

The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos "man", understood to mean humankind or humanity, and -logia  "discourse" or "study." Anthropology is the academic study of humanity. It deals with all that is characteristic of the human experience, from physiology and the evolutionary origins to the social and cultural organization of human societies as well as individual and collective forms of human experience. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. (Layton. R 1998)

Cultural anthropology also covers economic and political organization, law and conflict resolution, patterns of consumption and exchange, material culture, technology, infrastructure, gender relations, ethnicity, childrearing and socialization, religion, myth, symbols, values, etiquette, worldview, sports, music, nutrition, recreation, games, food, festivals, and language (which is also the object of study in linguistic anthropology).

There are several characteristics that tend to unite anthropological work. One of the central characteristics is that anthropology tends to provide a comparatively more holistic account of phenomena and tends to be highly empirical. The quest for holism leads most anthropologists to study a particular place, problem or phenomenon in detail, using a variety of methods, over a more extensive period than normal in many parts of academia. (ibid)

Like sociology the point where anthropology seems to departure from other human social science is that, anthropology begun as the study of the small scale tribal societies large scale chiefdom and ancient cavitations and later moved to include global scale societies sociology on the other hand always emphasize the study of modern and urbanized societies anthropology involves the comparison of different societies to understand the scope of human cultural diversity sociology on the other hand frequently examines universal paten of human behavior 

American anthropologist, Franz Boas. Boas emphasized that the major tools of analysis that anthropologist uses are like fieldwork, observation .Fieldwork involves seeking information about a particular group's behavior the other are like  gathering data and recording observable behaviors in that group's natural environment.

Lastly the major anthropologist tool of analysis used is speculation and investigation. Philosophers, such as Plato and Aristotle, speculated on what it meant to be human and on what mankind's place was in nature and in the universe. Herodotus, on the other hand, was an investigator. In Western society he is considered the first historian and the first ethnologist. (ibid)

(iv) Sociology

The word sociology (“sociologie") is derived from both Latin and Greek origins. The Latin word: socius, mean "companion" (ology) "the study of", and in Greek the word logos means, "knowledge". It was first coined in 1780 by the French essayist Emmanuel-Joseph in an unpublished manuscript. Sociology was later defined independently by the French philosopher of science, Augustine Comte  in 1838. Comte used the term sociology to describe a new way of looking at society (Comte. A, 2005)

Sociology Is the scientific study of society It is a social science  which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity.

The traditional focuses of sociology have included social stratification, social class, culture, social mobility, religion, secularization, law, and deviance. As all spheres of human activity are affected by the interplay between social structure and individual agency. Sociology has gradually expanded its focus to further subjects, such as health, medical, military and penal institutions, the Internet, and the role of social activity in the development of scientific knowledge.

Although the subject matter and methodologies in social science differ from those in natural science or computer science, several of the approaches used in contemporary social simulation originated from fields such as physics and artificial intelligence. By the same token, some of the approaches that originated in computational sociology have been imported into the natural sciences, such as measures of network centrality from the fields of social network analysis and network science.

Social research informs politicians and policy makers, educators, planners, lawmakers, administrators, developers, business magnates, managers, social workers, non-governmental organizations, non-profit organizations, and people interested in resolving social issues in general. There is often a great deal of crossover between social research, market research, and other statistical fields.

Sociology is categorized in to several Branches such as. Sociological theory. This is the branch of sociology attempts to provide generalization concerning social phenomena. For example how and why did classes come to be formed in society? Why do people behave the way they do? In other words sociological theory attempt to organize facts, ideas, concepts and principles so that we are able to explain various ways society is structured and the patterns of behavior in society.

Historical sociology. This is specialized branch of sociology which tries to understand a contemporary society through studying its past. For example Historical sociology may systematical study the past events and activities of a society in order to discover the genesis and development of a particular way of life being practiced in a contemporary society. . (Godia G.I and Wayaki E.M, 1988)

Sociology of family. This is a major branch of sociology which studies the family as a basic social institution in any society. This branch examines the family in terms of its evolution as an institution, its structure, function, problems, and ways of rearing children’s education approaches. Significance within the society relationship with the wider society and various other concerns.

Sociology of education. This is highly developed branch of sociology which examines an important social activity and institution in many societies. The sociology of Education systematically observes, analyzes and describes or explains education with regard to its social use and significance in the society.

Sociology overlaps with a variety of disciplines that study society, in particular anthropology, political science, economics, and social philosophy. Many comparatively new fields such as communication studies, cultural studies, demography and literary theory, draw upon methods that originated in sociology. The terms "social science" and "social research" have both gained a degree of autonomy since their origination in classical sociology. (Website 2009)

Sociology as discipline uses tool of analysis, one of them is secondary research. Secondary research is a tool used in sociology. Sociology as other field uses research field groups, observation, scientific experiment, questionnaires, surveys, interviews, statistics in studying primary and secondary resources to learn about the structure of groups of people and to study the way people interact together with each other (Godia&Wayaki 1988)

Today a social science is used as umbrella term to refer not just to sociology but also to economics, political sciences and other disciplines. Social theory is accordingly interdisciplinary drawing upon ideas from fields as diverse as anthropology and media studies. In late 19^th and 20^th century social theory become most close related to academic sociology while other related studies such as anthropology, philosophy and social work blanched out into their own disciplines. Although the disciplines of social sciences are departed, they related to each other since they all concerned with the service of society.

References

Blackburn, Simon (1994). The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Blaug, Mark (2007). "The Social Sciences Economics", the New Encyclopedia Britannica, v. 27, p. 345

Comte, Augustine, (2005), a Dictionary of Sociology 3rd Ed, John Scott & Gordon Marshall, Eds Oxford University Press,

Feldman, Allan M. (1987)."Welfare economics", The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics, v. 4, pg. 889–95.

Geoffrey Duncan M, (1970), a new dictionary of sociology, p.201

Godia G.I,Waiyaki E.M,(1988) ,Sociology of education, department of education foundation ,kenyata university publisher university of Nairobi

Michael Hughes (2005) sociology 7^th edition, Virginia polytechnic institute and state university.

Musgrave, R.A. (1987). "Public finance, the New Palgrave: a Dictionary of Economics, v. 3, pg. 1055–60.

Layton, Robert (1998) an Introduction to Theory in Anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Lamm.Robert ,Schatter. robert (1992),sociology, united state

Robbins, R. H.Larkin, (2007). Cultural Anthropology: A problem based approach. Toronto, ON: Nelson Education Ltd.

Salzmann, (1993) Language, culture, and society: an introduction to linguistic anthropology. Boulder, CO: West view Press.

Sociology History of Sociology Encyclopedia.com" Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2010-01-05.

Social Sciences." Microsoft® Student 2009 [DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2008.

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Prepared by Reward Gerald Kihedu-Bachelor of Education in Guidance and Counseling