HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS IN SOCIAL SCIENCE

2. HERODOTUS ARISTOTLE KAUTILYA

3.  Significant contributions to the
social sciences were made in
Medieval Islamic Civilization.
 Al-Biruni (973-1048) wrote
detailed comparative studies
on the anthropology of the
peoples, religions and cultures
in the middle east,
Mediterranean and South
Asia
 Father of sociology
 Major work – ‘Tarikh-ul-Hind’

4.  worked in areas of
demography,
historiography,
philosophy of history,
sociology and
Economics.
 Best known for his
work;
‘Muqaddimah’

5.  Age of enlightenment
 Representative figures of the 17th Century
include, David Hartley, Hugo Grotius, Thomas
Hobbes, John Locke and Samuel Von
Putendorf.
 In 18th century Social Science was called
‘moral philosophy’ as contrasted from natural
philosophy and mathematics and included the
study of natural theology, natural ethics,
natural jurisprudence and policy which
included economics and finance.
 Pure philosophy, logic, literature and history
were outside these two categories.

6. JOHN LOCKE THOMAS HOBBES DAVID HARDTLEY HUGO GROTIUS

7.  Thomas Hobbes and Sir. Issac Newton
made a revolution in the field of Science.
 Auguste Comte (1797-1857)Argued that
ideas pass through three rising stages,
theological, philosophical and scientific.
 He was the former thinkers of ‘Positivism’
 Major works – ‘The course of positive
philosophy, The system of Positivistic
policy

8. AUGUSTE COMTE THOMAS HOBBES SIR. ISSAC NEWTON

9.  The term ‘Social Science’ first appeared
in the 1824 book ‘An enquiry into the
principles of the distribution of wealth.’
 ‘William Thompson’ coined this term.
 Sociology was established by Comte in
1838
 He endeavoured to unify history,
psychology and economics through the
Scientific understanding of the social
realm.
 Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) – Sociology
was formally established.
 He marked a major contribution to the
concept of structural functionalism

10.  Karl Marx – Father of Scientific socialism
 Major works – Communist Manifesto, Das Capital
 Coined the term - Historical Materialism
 According to him, Primitive, Slave, Feudal,
Capitalist, Socialist are the 5 modes of production
 His writings have had an enormous impact on all of
the social sciences but particularly upon sociology
 Today, Durkhim, Marx and Max Weber were
considered as the architects of Social Science.
 Social Science become an umbrella term to
describe all those disciplines.

12. EMILE DURKHEIM KARL MARX MAX WEBBER

13.  Statistics became a free-standing
discipline of applied mathematics.
 ‘In 1924, Social Scientists established the
Pi Gamma Mu’ honor society for the
Social Sciences
 Its key objectives were.
 To promote interdisciplinary cooperation
 Develop an integrated theory of human
personality and organization etc.

14.  Emerging disciplines like social studies of
medicine, neuropsychology, Bio economics
and the history and sociology of science.
 Quantitative and qualitative methods are
being integrated
 Institutions such as The New School for
social Research International Institute of
Social History and departments of Social
research at prestigious universities were
meant to fill the growing demands for
individuals.

16.  The term ‘conselience’ was
coined by ‘William Whewell’
 Its meaning is ‘jumping
together of knowledge’
 It refers to the principle that
evidence form independent
un-related sources can
converge to strong
conclusions.
 Anyway, we can say that the
historical developments in
social science is still
continuing………