MEGA MATERIAL :- MOST IMP SAMAJIK VIGYAN(SOCIAL SCINCE) QUESTION BOOK DOWNLOAD FREE
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Social science is a major category of academic disciplines, concerned with societyand the relationships among individualswithin a society. It in turn has many branches, each of which is considered a social science. The social sciences include, but are not limited to, economics, political science, human geography, demography, management, psychology, sociology, anthropology, archaeology, jurisprudence, history, and linguistics. The term is also sometimes used to refer specifically to the field of sociology, the original 'science of society', established in the 19th century. A more detailed list of sub-disciplines within the social sciences can be found at Outline of social science.
Positivist social scientists use methods resembling those of the natural sciences as tools for understanding society, and so define science in its stricter modern sense. Interpretivist social scientists, by contrast, may use social critique or symbolic interpretation rather than constructing empirically falsifiable theories, and thus treat science in its broader sense. In modern academic practice, researchers are often eclectic, using multiple methodologies (for instance, by combining both quantitative and qualitative research). The term social research has also acquired a degree of autonomy as practitioners from various disciplines share in its aims and methods
The history of the social sciences begins in the Age of Enlightenment after 1650,[citation needed] 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 Revolutions, such as the Industrial Revolution and the French Revolution.[1] The social sciences developed from the sciences (experimental and applied), or the systematic knowledge-bases or prescriptive practices, relating to the social improvement of a group of interacting entities.[2][3]
The beginnings of the social sciences in the 18th century are reflected in the 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 modern period saw "social science" first used as a distinct conceptual field.[4] Social science was influenced by positivism,[1]focusing on knowledge based on actual positive sense experience and avoiding the negative; metaphysical speculation was avoided. Auguste Comte used the term "science sociale" to describe the field, taken from the ideas of Charles Fourier; Comte also referred to the field as social physics.
Following this period, there were five paths of development that sprang forth in the social sciences, influenced by Comte on other fields.[1] One route that was taken was the rise of social research. Large statistical surveys 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. 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 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.
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