1. Apa perbezaan antara Ilmu Kemanusiaan dan Sains Kemasyarakatan?

2. What are social sciences? Academic disciplines dealing with the study of the social life of groups and individuals Anthropology Communications Economics/Business History Political Sciences International Relations Psychology Sociology

3. Why a Philosophy of Social Science? It may be safe to assume that we know what the social and behavioral sciences are—psychology, sociology, political science, economics, anthropology, and you might include also disciplines that intersect and overlap these fields, such as geography, demography, social psychology, history, and archaeology. But it may not be safe to assume we know what philosophy is, even if you have studied a good deal of it already. The reason is that there is nothing like consensus among philosophers about exactly what their subject is. But in order to understand what the philosophy of social science is, and to see why it is important, it is crucial to have some agreement on the nature of philosophy.

4. The discipline of philosophy attempts to address two sorts of questions. 1. Questions that the sciences—physical, biological, social, and behavioral—cannot answer 2. Questions about why the sciences cannot answer the former questions For example, most biologists now believe they can answer questions about human nature, the origins of man, and the nature of life that have perplexed science and philosophy since their beginnings. And there are other questions that are equally old and still remain unanswered. For example, questions about consciousness, thought, sensation, and emotion remain unsolved.

5. Logic examines the nature of sound and valid reasoning, as it figures in mathematics, in the sciences as well as in other areas of intellectual life that proceed by argument and inference. Is there just one body of valid principles of inference or do different sciences and subject matters require different logics? Epistemology considers the nature, extent, and justification of knowledge: Are all claims to knowledge justified in the same way, by appeal to broadly the same kind of evidence, or are some theories—say, those of mathematics, the social sciences, or the humanities—warranted by considerations different from those natural scientists demand?

6. Metaphysics pursues questions about the nature of things: Are there just the material things with which natural science deals? Is the mind a distinct sort of nonphysical substance? Is human action free from physical constraints that determine the behavior of purely mechanical systems? Are there numbers, as opposed to the numerals we employ to express them? Ethics and political philosophy address those questions that scientific progress raises but cannot answer

7. What is the study of philosophy of social sciences the study of the logic and methods of the social sciences. Central topics include: 1.What are the criteria of a good social explanation? 2.How (if at all) are the social sciences distinct from the natural sciences? 3.Is there a distinctive method for social research? 4.Through what sorts of empirical procedures are social science assertions to be evaluated? 5.Are there irreducible social laws? 6.Are there causal relations among social phenomena? 7.Do social facts and regularities require some form of reduction to facts and regularities involving only the properties and actions of individuals? The philosophy of social science aims to provide an interpretation of the social sciences that permits answers to these questions.

8. The philosophy of social science has both a descriptive and a prescriptive side. On the one hand, the field is about the social sciences--the explanations, methods, empirical arguments, theories, hypotheses, and so forth, that actually occur in the social science literature, past and present. This means that the philosopher needs to have extensive knowledge of several areas of social science research, in order to be able to formulate an analysis of the social sciences that corresponds appropriately to scientists' practice. On the other hand, the field is epistemic: it is concerned with the idea that scientific theories and hypotheses are put forward as true or probable, and are justified on rational grounds (empirical and theoretical).

10. Social Philosophy and Social Science Although philosophy and science spring from experience, from the inherent desire of the human person to know reality, they differ in their approach and intent. Philosophy seeks to understand reality in its totality and ultimate value, while science attempts to control and manipulate it. Philosophical approach integrative of experience; while science isolates a certain aspect of reality.

11. Social philosophy penetrates into the social dimension of human existence with the immediacy of intuition, searching its meaning and value(s), conceptualizing them for the sake of integrative meaningful living. Structures that social philosophy seeks to understand are not taken in isolation from one another but placed in a figure-horizon sort of way. Attempts to understand being-with-others-in society in total integrative way.

12. Social sciences try to examine a segment of social reality (a group of people, their culture, their economics or politics) as a fact and to explain it. Social scientist tries to find inter-objective connections between facts and formulates theories and laws, sometimes with measurements and statistics. Uses induction and deduction. Method limited to observable phenomena, to social reality as an object.

13. Social philosophy and social sciences help each other. Philosopher’s insight substantiated by facts provided by scientist, and scientist is impelled to probe into a social fact by the insight of a philosopher. Scientist’s methodology contains certain philosophical presuppositions for the philosopher to unearth and criticize. Philosopher’s understanding of social reality would remain abstract and unfounded without findings of the social sciences.

14. Human Existence is Social Our life is social in everything. By “everything” we mean everything that is subject to human responsibility. The person’s activities are social not only because he/she performs them with others but also because he/she learns them from others, executes them according to accepted patterns and does them for his/her fellow human beings. Even wanting to be alone is social.

15. Every genuinely human activity is interwoven with an orderly field of meaning, but this orderly field of meaning is at our disposal through others, through society. This is true in the areas of work, play, sense perception, thinking, and feeling. Orderly field of meaning in human activity depends upon our fellow human beings and is in turn dependent upon the human person.

16. Human existence is fundamentally social in that 1) human existence has a historical character, 2) we need others to enter into the human world of meaning and to make it our own, and 3) being-together is a fundamental value which gives authentic fulfillment in our life. The authentic being-for-others is being at the service of others that promotes the existence of the other for his own sake. Here, the being-for- others and the being-through-others merge.

17. “education” as seen from Global North 1001inventions.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=main....

18. The reach and genius of Muslim Civilisation 1,000 years ago belies the Western description of this era as the "Dark Ages". Instead it was a vibrant, sophisticated time, when ancestors created maps of the stars, flying machines, algebra, water raising machines and everyday items like soap and the fountain pen. http://www.1001inventions.com/mt/archives/blog_26/HeritageTimeLine.gif Enlightened Age ?

23. Epistemology: How do we know when something is true? Natural Sciences  Scientific Method Social Sciences  3 Research Orientations  Positivism (often quantitative research)  Interpretivism (often qualitative research)  Realism

24. The Scientific Method Research Question Unexplained Phenomenon Theory Tentative Explanation Hypothesis Observable Prediction Experiment Falsification Support or Refute Theory

25. Key Epistemological Question for the Social Sciences: Can the social world be studied with the same methods used in the natural sciences? YES  Positivism (Emile Durkheim)  Typically Deductive Research NO  Interpretivism or Verstehen (Max Weber)  Typically Inductive Research YES  Realism (Karl Mark, Sigmund Freud)  No methodological preference

27. Social Science Tradition (1): Positivism Knowledge derived from observations (empiricism) ◦ Theory alone is not scientific knowledge  philosophy ◦ Scientific knowledge: theories supported by data Research is deductive Theory  Hypothesis  Collect Data  Findings   Findings confirm or reject hypothesis  Revise theory Social science should be value free ◦ Social scientist’s personal opinions shouldn’t matter

28. Building Blocks of Positivism: Theories, Hypotheses, and Variables Theory: Plausible explanation for a particular social phenomenon. –Theory explains the ‘causal relationship’ between social variables. –The data determine the ‘correlation between variables’. Founding Theories of Sociology –Karl Marx (Capitalism and Society) –Max Weber (Religion and Capitalism) –Emile Durkheim

29. Variables: An important “object” within a theory that can take on two or more different values or categories. Examples of Sociological Variables: –Economic systems: capitalism, socialism, mixed economies. –Social Class: upper class, middle class, working class, lower class. –Gender: male, female (perhaps transgendered) –Age: –Education:

30. Proxies: A variable that represents (albeit imperfectly) a more complicated sociological concept. Proxies enable researchers to measure abstract social phenomena. Examples: Concept Possible Proxy Gender Equality -- Gender pay gap Political participation ---Voter participation rates National Prosperity --- Income per capita Measurement Validity

31. Hypothesis: A short and empirically testable statement, derived from theory, which predicts a certain outcome. Possible hypotheses for classical theories in sociology: –Marx: The more the economy is privately owned, the more economic inequality will grow in that society. –Weber: Protestant-dominated countries have stronger economies than Catholic-dominated countries. –Durkheim: The more advanced a society’s division of labor, the more people in that society will suffer from anomie. Important note: All of these hypotheses can be tested; thus they are said to be ‘falsifiable’.

32. The Epistemological Problem The way we construct knowledge about the natural and physical world is very different to how we construct knowledge about ourselves “Structure and Action” Social Science “Structure and Function” Natural Science Social institutions Cultural institutions Political institutions The corporation Regulatory bodies The army The market NGOs … Work Rituals Play War Theft Commerce Creative arts Communications … Hollow bone structure Protein shape Organism shape Fur Flat teeth DNA … Flight Catalytic reaction Efficient propulsion Thermal insulation Eating grass Successful reproduction Metabolism … Social Science tends to be “Subjective”, inward-focused, and has an abstract ontology Natural Science tends to be “Objective”, outward-focused, and has a concrete ontology

33. Social Science Language Biology Engineering Chemistry Physics More abstract More physical Creative Arts Humanities Natural & Physical Science Economics Anthropology Sociology Mathematics Can we put natural and social science on the same page? “Objective”“Subjective” Software, ICT Networks & hardware Computer Science Media ICT allows us to suspend E&O issues while we build something together ( This is difficult, and the subjective/objective dichotomy is an oversimplification)

36. In-Class Exercise: 1) Write out a one sentence hypothesis that offers a plausible explanation for the following social problems: –poverty –gender inequality in the workplace –anti-social behavior among teenagers 2) Identify the variables in your hypotheses 3) H ow you would measure these variables?