What does social studies study?

The object of study of social science is society. Society is a very complex system that is subject to various laws. Naturally, there is no one science that could cover all aspects of society, so several sciences study it. Each science studies one aspect of the development of society: economics, social relations, development paths, and others.

Social science - a general name for sciences that study society as a whole and social processes.

Every science hasobject and subject.

Object of science - a phenomenon of objective reality that science studies.

Subject of science - A person, a group of people cognizing an object.

Sciences are divided into three groups.

Science:

Exact sciences	Natural Sciences	Public (humanitarian)
Mathematics, computer science, logic and others	Chemistry, physics, biology, astronomy and others	Philosophy, economics, sociology and others

Society is studied by social sciences (humanities).

The main difference between social sciences and humanities:

	Social Sciences	Humanitarian sciences
Main object of study	Society

Social (humanitarian) sciences that study society and man:

archaeology, economics, history, cultural studies, linguistics, political science, psychology, sociology, law, ethnography, philosophy, ethics, aesthetics.

Archeology- a science that studies the past from material sources.

Economy– the science of economic activity society.

Story- the science of the past of humanity.

Cultural studies- a science that studies the culture of society.

Linguistics- the science of language.

Political science- the science of politics, society, the relationship between people, society and the state.

Psychology– the science of the development and functioning of the human psyche.

Sociology- the science of the laws of formation and development of social systems, groups, individuals.

Right – a set of laws and rules of behavior in society.

Ethnography- a science that studies the life and culture of peoples and nations.

Philosophy- the science of the universal laws of social development.

Ethics- the science of morality.

Aesthetics - the science of beauty.

Sciences study societies in the narrow and broad senses.

Society in the narrow sense:

1. The entire population of the Earth, the totality of all peoples.

2. Historical stage development of humanity (feudal society, slave society).

3. Country, state (French society, Russian society).

4. Uniting people for some purpose (animal lovers club, soldiers’ society

mothers).

5. A circle of people united by a common position, origin, interests (high society).

6. Methods of interaction between the authorities and the population of the country (democratic society, totalitarian society)

Society in the broad sense - a part of the material world isolated from nature, but closely connected with it, which includes ways of interaction between people and forms of their unification.

Social science is a science that studies society and the processes occurring in it. In its arsenal, social science has many tools related to different branches of knowledge. Everything that concerns interaction in society, trends in the development of the human collective, is the object of study of this academic discipline.

The place of social science in the system of sciences

“Social science is a science that studies society” - this is precisely the definition that was formed in the philistine consciousness, and it is partly true, but still does not fully reflect the essence of this scientific discipline. To understand what this branch of knowledge is, let’s first talk about science in general. So, science as a term denotes a system of studying the world around us.

Branches of knowledge from the point of view of the object under study can be divided into several groups:

1. Fundamental. Sciences, which are a help and a tool, the basis for all others. This group includes not only the sciences themselves, such as mathematics, but also those branches that form the basis - for example, nuclear chemistry.
2. Technical. Disciplines that study the technosphere, as well as auxiliary ones for this. This group includes architecture, cybernetics, computer science, systems engineering, mechanics, and so on.
3. Humanities. Sciences that study human activity in certain areas. Literary criticism, art criticism, psychology.
4. Applied. Those disciplines that may have direct practical use In human life.
5. Public. A layer of sciences that study social processes. This group includes sciences that study man - social science, sociology, as well as disciplines that study the activities of communities of people: history, political science, economics, jurisprudence.

Related Sciences

So, having studied the classification of sciences in general, we come to the question of what sciences study social science. To begin with, it should be noted that the humanities, which are often identified with social sciences, are not necessarily such. Thus, they explore the creativity or activities of individuals without their direct connection with society.

The group of social sciences is focused specifically on human activity in the context of his interaction with other people. Below are the sciences that study social studies. The table contains a list of disciplines and a description of research objects.

Disciplines related to social science

Name of discipline	Object of study
Economy	Economic activity of society, laws of production, distribution, consumption, exchange
Sociology	Patterns of functioning of society, relationships and communities of people, social institutions
Cultural studies	Achievements of humanity in art and spiritual life
Political science	Political organization and social life
	Life and activities of society in the past

Thus, by studying the table, you can understand what sciences study social science. In addition to the above, some experts also include psychology, anthropology, philosophy and pedagogy in this group.

Dwelling on every aspect human activity and after analyzing the overall picture, we can conclude that this scientific discipline is fundamental and necessary.

Economics as a science related to social science

When describing the sciences that help to study social science, the first step is to dwell on the discipline, which is of great practical importance, and in modern world is one of the fundamental ones. This is economics. Let us consider further how it collaborates with other social sciences.

As already mentioned, social science is a science that studies society. A fundamental component of the life of society is economic activity, without which there would simply be no need to think about other types of activities. Production, distribution, exchange - all these stages imply both a direct economic component and a human factor. And it is at the junction of these two interconnected components relationships in society and there is a need for a comprehensive study of them. In such cases we're talking about about the emergence of economics in the arsenal of social sciences, and the discipline acts as a research tool.

Sociology is a central element of social science

Sociology occupies almost a central place in the totality of sciences about the human collective. The discipline examines in detail the structure of society, the characteristics of relationships between people, and trends in society.

Combining the qualities of fundamental and applied science, sociology, on the one hand, studies social phenomena, and on the other hand, can predict them and thus influence them.

The scientific discipline has several difficult dilemmas associated with the heterogeneity of approaches of scientists to certain issues. For example, the attitude of scientists from different schools of sociology to the question of the initial environment of society is different: whether it is initially conflicting or favorable. It is in solving this issue that others help social disciplines. Social science is a science that studies the possibility of applying applied knowledge from one branch of knowledge to another.

Cultural studies

From the time when the first people began to unite into tribes and live in communities, they began to engage in the first creativity. Surprisingly, rock art, found today in some places on the planet, can say a lot about the people of that time. Visual arts, oral folk art, vocals - all this was developed even thousands of years ago.

What it is - the spiritual heritage of humanity, what it contains and what it can give to the generations that come after - this is what cultural studies studies.

Social science is a science that studies society with all its facets, and in Western taxonomy, cultural studies is not an independent discipline, but only a section of social science. In the domestic classification, it is customary to distinguish this science as an independent one, with its own subject and method of study.

Political science in the system of social sciences

Political science is the science of relations between power and man, the functioning of state institute, about the place of man in this structure. Since the formation of the first management apparatus, the need for this discipline has become clear. Its connection with social science is obvious: the state exists only where society exists, and at the same time, there is now no civilized society in which there would be no state.

Story

The most important role in the system of sciences that study society is assigned to the discipline of history. Covering thousands of years, leading the biography of all previous generations, it is able to provide answers to many questions of our time. How individual civilizations developed, what was the apogee of their evolution and why they fell - all this gives to modern man opportunity to avoid the same mistakes in the future.

History shows how, at one time or another, people and the state, the state and the state, interacted with each other.

Social studies as academic discipline uses various tools and methods to study society. Being combined with other social sciences, this branch of knowledge allows a person to become one step closer to understanding the secrets of society.

Under science It is customary to understand systematically organized knowledge based on facts obtained through empirical research methods based on the measurement of real phenomena. There is no consensus on which disciplines belong to the social sciences. There are various classifications of these social sciences.

Depending on their connection with practice, sciences are divided into:

1) fundamental (they find out the objective laws of the surrounding world);

2) applied (solve the problems of applying these laws to solve practical problems in the industrial and social fields).

If we adhere to this classification, the boundaries of these groups of sciences are conditional and fluid.

The generally accepted classification is based on the subject of research (those connections and dependencies that each science directly studies). In accordance with this, the following groups of social sciences are distinguished.

Philosophy is the most ancient and fundamental science, establishing the most general patterns of development of nature and society. Philosophy fulfills cognitive function in society-knowledge. Ethics is the theory of morality, its essence and impact on the development of society and people's lives. Morality and morality play a big role in motivating human behavior, his ideas about nobility, honesty, and courage. Aesthetics- the doctrine of the development of art and artistic creativity, a way of embodying the ideals of humanity in painting, music, architecture and other areas of culture

So, we found out that there is no consensus on the question of which disciplines belong to the social sciences. However, to social sciences it is customary to attribute sociology, psychology, social psychology, economics, political science and anthropology. These sciences have much in common, they are closely related to each other and form a kind of scientific union.

Adjacent to them is a group of related sciences, which are classified as humanitarian. This philosophy, language, art history, literary criticism.

Social sciences operate quantitative(mathematical and statistical) methods, and humanitarian - quality(descriptive-evaluative).

Society is such a complex object that science alone cannot study it. Only by combining the efforts of many sciences can we fully and consistently describe and study the most complex formation that exists in this world, human society. The totality of all sciences that study society as a whole is called social studies. These include philosophy, history, sociology, economics, political science, psychology and social psychology, anthropology and cultural studies. These are fundamental sciences, consisting of many subdisciplines, sections, directions, and scientific schools.

Social science, having emerged later than many other sciences, incorporates their concepts and specific results, statistics, tabular data, graphs and conceptual diagrams, and theoretical categories.

The entire set of sciences related to social science is divided into two types - social And humanitarian.

If the social sciences are the sciences of human behavior, then the humanities are the sciences of the spirit. It can be said differently, the subject of social sciences is society, the subject of humanities is culture. The main subject of social sciences is study of human behavior.

Sociology, psychology, social psychology, economics, political science, as well as anthropology and ethnography (the science of peoples) belong to social sciences . They have a lot in common, they are closely related and form a kind of scientific union. Adjacent to it is a group of other related disciplines: philosophy, history, art history, cultural studies, literary studies. They are classified as humanitarian knowledge.

Since representatives of neighboring sciences constantly communicate and enrich each other with new knowledge, the boundaries between social philosophy, social psychology, economics, sociology and anthropology can be considered very conditional. At their intersection, interdisciplinary sciences are constantly emerging, for example, social anthropology appeared at the intersection of sociology and anthropology, and economic psychology appeared at the intersection of economics and psychology. In addition, there are such integrative disciplines as legal anthropology, sociology of law, economic sociology, cultural anthropology, psychological and economic anthropology, historical sociology.

Let's get acquainted more thoroughly with the specifics of the leading social sciences:

Economy- a science that studies the principles of organizing the economic activities of people, the relations of production, exchange, distribution and consumption that are formed in every society, formulates the foundations rational behavior producer and consumer of goods. Economics also studies the behavior of large masses of people in a market situation. In small and large - in public and privacy- people cannot take a single step without affecting economic relations. When negotiating a job, buying goods on the market, counting our income and expenses, demanding payment of wages, and even going on a visit, we - directly or indirectly - take into account the principles of economy.

Sociology– a science that studies the relationships that arise between groups and communities of people, the nature of the structure of society, problems of social inequality and the principles of resolving social conflicts.

Political science– a science that studies the phenomenon of power, the specifics of social management, and the relationships that arise in the process of carrying out government activities.

Psychology- the science of the laws, mechanisms and facts of the mental life of humans and animals. The main theme of psychological thought in antiquity and the Middle Ages is the problem of the soul. Psychologists study stable and repetitive behavior in individual behavior. The focus is on problems of perception, memory, thinking, learning and development human personality. In modern psychology there are many branches of knowledge, including psychophysiology, zoopsychology and comparative psychology, social psychology, child psychology and pedagogical psychology, age-related psychology, labor psychology, creativity psychology, medical psychology, etc.

Anthropology - science of human origin and evolution, education human races and about normal variations physical structure person. She studies primitive tribes that have survived today from primitive times in the lost corners of the planet: their customs, traditions, culture, behavior patterns.

Social Psychology studies small group (family, group of friends, sports team). Social psychology is a frontier discipline. She was formed at the intersection of sociology and psychology, taking on tasks that her parents were unable to solve. It turned out that a large society does not directly influence the individual, but through an intermediary - small groups. This world of friends, acquaintances and relatives closest to a person plays an exceptional role in our lives. We generally live in small, not big worlds- in a specific house, in a specific family, in a specific company, etc. The small world sometimes influences us even more than the big one. That is why science appeared, which took it closely and very seriously.

Story- one of the most important sciences in the system of social and humanitarian knowledge. The object of its study is man, his activities throughout existence human civilization. The word “history” is of Greek origin and means “research”, “search”. Some scholars believed that the object of studying history is the past. The famous French historian M. Blok categorically objected to this. “The very idea that the past as such can be an object of science is absurd.”

Emergence historical science dates back to the times of ancient civilizations. The “father of history” is considered to be the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, who compiled a work dedicated to the Greco-Persian wars. However, this is hardly fair, since Herodotus used not so much historical data as legends, legends and myths. And his work cannot be considered completely reliable. There are much more reasons to consider Thucydides, Polybius, Arrian, Publius Cornelius Tacitus, and Ammianus Marcellinus to be considered the fathers of history. These ancient historians used documents, their own observations, and eyewitness accounts to describe events. All ancient peoples considered themselves historiographers and revered history as a teacher of life. Polybius wrote: “lessons drawn from history most surely lead to enlightenment and prepare us for engaging in public affairs; the story of the trials of other people is the most intelligible or the only teacher that teaches us to courageously endure the vicissitudes of fate.”

And although, over time, people began to doubt that history could teach subsequent generations not to repeat the mistakes of previous ones, the importance of studying history was not disputed. The most famous Russian historian V.O. Klyuchevsky wrote in his reflections on history: “History teaches nothing, but only punishes for ignorance of the lessons.”

Culturology I am primarily interested in the world of art - painting, architecture, sculpture, dance, forms of entertainment and mass spectacles, institutions of education and science. The subjects of cultural creativity are a) individuals, b) small groups, c) large groups. In this sense, cultural studies covers all types of associations of people, but only to the extent that it concerns the creation of cultural values.

Demography studies population - the entire multitude of people who make up human society. Demography is primarily interested in how they reproduce, how long they live, why and in what numbers they die, and where large masses of people move. She looks at man partly as a natural, partly as a social being. All living things are born, die and reproduce. These processes are influenced primarily by biological laws. For example, science has proven that a person cannot live more than 110-115 years. This is its biological resource. However, the vast majority of people live to be 60-70 years old. But this is today, and two hundred years ago the average life expectancy did not exceed 30-40 years. Even today, people in poor and underdeveloped countries live less than in rich and highly developed countries. In humans, life expectancy is determined both by biological and hereditary characteristics, and social conditions(life, work, rest, food).

3.7 . Social and humanitarian knowledge

Social cognition- this is knowledge of society. Understanding society is a very complex process for a number of reasons.

1. Society is the most complex of the objects of knowledge. In social life, all events and phenomena are so complex and diverse, so different from each other and so intricately intertwined that it is very difficult to detect certain patterns in it.

2. In social cognition, not only material (as in natural science), but also ideal, spiritual relationships are studied. These relationships are much more complex, diverse and contradictory than connections in nature.

3. In social cognition, society acts both as an object and as a subject of cognition: people create their own history, and they also know it.

Speaking of specifics social cognition, extremes should be avoided. On the one hand, it is impossible to explain the reasons for Russia’s historical lag using Einstein’s theory of relativity. On the other hand, it cannot be argued that all the methods by which nature is studied are unsuitable for social science.

The primary and elementary method of cognition is observation. But it differs from the observation that is used in natural science when observing the stars. In social science, knowledge concerns the animate, endowed with consciousness objects. And if, for example, the stars, even after many years of observation of them, remain completely unperturbed in relation to the observer and his intentions, then in public life everything is different. As a rule, a reverse reaction is detected on the part of the object being studied, something that makes observation impossible from the very beginning, or interrupts it somewhere in the middle, or introduces interference into it that significantly distorts the results of the study. Therefore, non-participant observation in social science does not provide sufficiently reliable results. Another method is needed, which is called participant observation. It is carried out not from the outside, not from the outside in relation to the object being studied (social group), but from within it.

For all its significance and necessity, observation in social science demonstrates the same fundamental shortcomings as in other sciences. While observing, we cannot change the object in the direction that interests us, regulate the conditions and course of the process being studied, or reproduce it as many times as required to complete the observation. Significant shortcomings of observation are largely overcome in experiment.

The experiment is active and transformative. In an experiment we interfere with the natural course of events. According to V.A. Stoff, an experiment can be defined as a type of activity undertaken for the purpose of scientific knowledge, the discovery of objective laws and consisting of influencing the object (process) under study using special tools and devices. Thanks to the experiment, it is possible to: 1) isolate the object under study from the influence of side, insignificant phenomena that obscure its essence and study it in its “pure” form; 2) repeatedly reproduce the course of the process under strictly fixed, controllable and accountable conditions; 3) systematically change, vary, combine various conditions in order to obtain the desired result..

Social experiment has a number of significant features.

1. The social experiment is of a concrete historical nature. Experiments in the field of physics, chemistry, biology can be repeated in different eras, in different countries, because the laws of natural development do not depend on the form and type of production relations, or on national and historical characteristics. Social experiments aimed at transforming the economy, the national-state structure, the education system, etc., can lead to various historical eras, in different countries not only different, but also directly opposite results.

2. The object of a social experiment has a much lesser degree of isolation from similar objects remaining outside the experiment and from all the influences of a given society as a whole. Here, such reliable isolating devices as vacuum pumps, protective screens, etc., used in the process of a physical experiment, are impossible. This means that a social experiment cannot be carried out with a sufficient degree of approximation to “pure conditions”.

3. A social experiment places increased demands on compliance with “safety precautions” during its implementation compared to natural science experiments, where even experiments carried out by trial and error are acceptable. A social experiment at any point in its course constantly has a direct impact on the well-being, well-being, physical and mental health of the people involved in the “experimental” group. Underestimation of any detail, any failure during the experiment can have a detrimental effect on people and no good intentions of its organizers can justify this.

4. A social experiment may not be conducted for the purpose of directly obtaining theoretical knowledge. Conducting experiments (experiments) on people is inhumane in the name of any theory. A social experiment is an ascertaining, confirming experiment.

One of the theoretical methods of cognition is historical method research, i.e. a method that identifies significant historical facts and stages of development, which ultimately makes it possible to create a theory of the object and reveal the logic and patterns of its development.

Another method is modeling. Modeling is understood as a method of scientific knowledge in which research is carried out not on the object of interest to us (the original), but on its substitute (analogue), similar to it in certain respects. As in other industries scientific knowledge, modeling in social science is used when the subject itself is not available for direct study (say, does not yet exist at all, for example, in predictive studies), or this direct study requires enormous costs, or it is impossible due to ethical considerations.

In his goal-setting activities, from which history is formed, man has always strived to comprehend the future. Interest in the future has especially intensified in the modern era in connection with the formation of the information and computer society, in connection with those global problems that call into question the very existence of humanity. Foresight came out on top.

Scientific foresight represents such knowledge about the unknown, which is based on already known knowledge about the essence of the phenomena and processes that interest us and about their trends further development. Scientific foresight does not claim absolutely accurate and complete knowledge of the future, or its mandatory reliability: even carefully verified and balanced forecasts are justified only with a certain degree of reliability.

Society (like a person) can be studied from different positions, and therefore a whole series of scientific disciplines. Society is an object of study for philosophy, history, anthropology, ethnology, sociology, political science, cultural studies, jurisprudence and economics, which from the standpoint of their characteristic general scientific and special methods are engaged in the study of certain aspects of it that form the subject of study of these scientific disciplines.

Philosophy. Philosophy studies society from the point of view of its essence: structure, ideological foundations, the relationship between spiritual and material factors in it. Since it is society that generates, develops and transmits meanings, philosophy that studies meanings pays central attention to society and its problems. Any philosophical study necessarily touches on the topic of society, since human thought always unfolds in a social context that predetermines its structure.

The philosophical approach to society depends on the positions of a particular philosopher: in accordance with these positions, the definition of society, its typology, and methods of studying it change.

Philosophy provides the deepest knowledge about society related to the comprehension of its nature, patterns, and foundations. These meaningful aspects of society as a phenomenon are called "philosophical aspects of social science".

Story. History examines the progressive development of societies, giving a description of the phases of their development, structure, structure, features and characteristics. Various schools historical knowledge put emphasis on different aspects stories. The focus of the classical historical school is religion, culture, worldview, social and political structure society, a description of the periods of its development and the most important events And characters social history.

Anthropology. Anthropology – literally, “the science of man” – typically studies archaic societies, in which it seeks to find the key to understanding more developed cultures.

The anthropological method of studying society consists of a thorough study of myths, legends, rituals, everyday behavior, habits, gestures and even prejudices of its members, as well as the most ancient social institutions.

In a broad sense, “anthropology” can be called any field of study that takes man as its main object of study.

Ethnology. Closely related to anthropology is ethnology, which examines the structure, history and development of ethnic groups. Here the main object of study is not only “primitive societies”, but also other social forms created by ethnic groups at different stages of development.
Ethnology describes value systems, origins, phases of historical formation, linguistic identity, economic structure and systems of religious and mythological views of ethnic groups.

Sociology. Sociology is a discipline whose main object is society itself, studied as an integral phenomenon.
Society in sociology is considered the authority where the type of rationality, the idea of ​​a person, and the worldview are formed.

In a broad sense, sociology strives to study society as an independent object and is closely related to philosophy.

Political science. Political science studies society in its political dimension, exploring the development and change of power systems and institutions of society, transformation political system states, change of political ideologies.

Culturology. Culturology views society as a cultural phenomenon. In this perspective, social content manifests itself through culture generated and developed by society. Society in cultural studies acts as a subject of culture and at the same time as the field on which cultural creativity unfolds and in which cultural phenomena are interpreted. Culture, understood in a broad sense, covers the entire set of social values ​​that create group portrait identity of each specific society.

Jurisprudence. Jurisprudence primarily considers public relations in the legal aspect, which they acquire by being fixed in legislative acts. Legal systems and institutions reflect the prevailing trends in social development and combine ideological, political, historical, cultural and value attitudes of society. The study of legal norms and laws, usually enshrined in documentary regulations, helps to more fully understand the structures of societies. It is often legal documents that are preserved from ancient societies, which has led to the creation of widespread practices historical reconstruction social systems and institutions based on surviving legal and legislative acts.

Economy. Economics studies the economic structure of various societies, examines the impact of economic activity on social institutions, structures and relationships.

Social studies generalizes the approaches of all social disciplines. The discipline “Social Science” contains elements of all the above-described scientific disciplines that help to understand and correctly interpret basic social meanings, processes and institutions. Philosophy, history, political science, cultural studies, jurisprudence, economics, and ethnology participate in “Social Studies” as a discipline. They all view society from different points of view, and the totality