This document provides an overview of the history and development of social science as an academic discipline. It discusses how early philosophers like Plato, Aristotle, Ibn Khaldun, and others conducted analyses that laid the foundations for later social science fields. Key figures of the Enlightenment like Hobbes, Locke, Montesquieu, and Rousseau further developed social contract theory and approaches. The document then outlines how 19th century scholars like Durkheim formalized social science by establishing sociology as a quantifiable, empirical field of study.

1. NATURE AND FUNCTION
OF SOCIAL SCIENCE
DISCIPLINES WITH THE
NATURAL SCIENCE AND
HUMANITIES

2. Social Science is engaged in the study
of phenomena relating to human group
and their socio-physical environment.
The term social science carries with it
two important contexts:
1. It involves the scientific process
2. It inquiries about social space

3. Social Science started as a field of
inquiry on populations using the
scientific method.

4. SOCIAL PROBLEMS AND
SOCIAL SCIENCE
Example: Poverty and Social
Science
(Economics) due to covid-19
The world is facing a
pandemic
The connection
between Social Science
and social problems
should be a high priority
for all social scientists
and citizens alike.

5. WHAT IS NATURAL SCIENCE?
It is a major branch of Science that
deals with the description, prediction
and understanding of natural
phenomena, based on observational
and empirical evidence.

6. TWO MAIN BRANCHES OF
NATURAL SCIENCE:
LIFE SCIENCE
 Biological Science
PHYSICAL SCIENCE
• Physics
• Astronomy
• Chemistry
• Earth Science

7. WHAT IS HUMANITIES?
Refers to the study of the ways in
which the human experience is
processed and documented.
Encompasses the field of
Philosophy, Literature, Religion, Art,
Music, History, and Language

12. MEANING OF SOCIAL SCIENCE, NATURAL
SCIENCE AND HUMANITIES
Social Science: The field of human knowledge that
deals with all aspects of the group life of human
beings. So, it is subject to change with the changes of
human behaviour.

13. Natural Science:
Behavioural Science a
branch of science that
seeks to elucidate the
rules that govern the
natural world by using
the Empirical and
Scientific.
Subject areas:
Physics
Chemistry
Biology
Earth science
Astronomy

14. Empirical and Scientific Method
Humanities- an academic discipline that studies the
human condition, using methods that are primarily
analytical, critical, or speculative.
• Ancient and modern Languages,
• Visual and Performing Arts such as music
• Theatre Arts
• Literature, History, Philosophy, Religion

15. HISTORY OF SOCIAL SCIENCE
The history of the social sciences begins in the
roots of ancient philosophy.
In Ancient history, there was no difference
between Mathematics and the study of History,
Poetry or Politics.
The term ―social science‖ may refer either to
the specific sciences of society established by
thinkers such as Comte, Durkheim, Marx, and
Weber, or more generally to all disciplines
outside of noble science and arts.

16. Plato was an Athenian
philosopher during the
Classical period in Ancient
Greece, founder of the
Platonist school of thought,
and the Academy, the first
institution of higher learning
in the Western world.

17. Plato’s philosophy
discussed how human
nature or the soul is a
reflection of society and
how a society can achieve
harmony by creating
classes or divisions.

18. Aristotle is a towering figure in
ancient Greek Philosophy, who
made important contributions to
Logic, Criticism, Rhetoric, Physics,
Biology, Psychology, Mathematics,
Metaphysics, Ethics, and Politics.
He was a student of Plato for twenty
years but is famous for rejecting
Plato's theory of forms.

19. Al Biruni (973-1048)is an
Islamic medieval scholar who
documented the lives of early
populations in the Middle East,
South Asia, and the
Mediterranean. Some

20. Some of his most acclaimed works
include: The Remaining Signs of Past
Century(1000 CE)-which is a comparative
study of the different calendars of cultures
and civilization in the Middle East and
South Asia and Critical Study of What
India says, whether Accepted by Reason
or Refused-which is a detailed account of
the religion and philosophy of India.

21. Ibn Khaldun's epistemology
attempted to reconcile
mysticism with theology by
dividing Science into two
different categories, the
religious science that regards
the sciences of the Qur'an
and the non-religious
science.

22. Another trailblazer in the
social sciences was Iban
Khaldun in (1332-1406) a
North African Muslim Scholar
who was recognized as one of
the key founders of several
disciplines in the social
sciences such as
Demography, History,
Sociology, Anthropology and
Economics

23. His most acclaimed work is called
Muqaddimah of Ibn Khaldun (1337),
wherein he used the universal
history (world history) approach that
emphasized the history of human
kind as a coherent unit of analysis,
insisting that history be void of idle
superstition and uncritical
acceptance of historical data. This
germinated the practice of
―scientific approach‖ to the study
of human populations.

24. Thomas Hobbes, was an English
philosopher, considered to be one
of the founders of modern political
philosophy. Hobbes is best known
for his 1651 book Leviathan, in
which he expounds an influential
formulation of social contract
theory.

25. John Locke FRS was an English
philosopher and physician, widely
regarded as one of the most
influential of the Enlightenment
thinkers and commonly known as
John Locke (1632—1704), John
Locke was among the most famous
philosophers and political theorists
of the 17th century.

26. Charles-Louis de Secondat,
Baron de La Brède et de
Montesquieu, generally referred to
as simply Montesquieu, was a
French judge, man of letters, and
political philosopher. He is the
principal source of the theory of
separation of powers, which is
implemented in many constitutions
throughout the world.

27. Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a
Genevan philosopher, writer and
composer. His political philosophy
influenced the progress of the
Enlightenment throughout Europe,
as well as aspects of the French
Revolution and the development of
modern political, economic and
educational thought. He attempted
to explain that a social contract
exists, which enables a society to
function toward a general will or a
common good.

28. Scholars-used critical thinking
and scientific inquiry to
address the shifting
socioeconomic condition of
their time.

29. David Émile Durkheim was a
French sociologist. He formally
established the academic
discipline of sociology and—
with Karl Marx and Max Weber
—is commonly cited as the
principal architect of modern
social science.

30. He argued in his work The
Rules of Sociological Methods
(1895) that everything in the
social realm could be
quantifiably understood. He
documented and compared his
work Suicide (1897) the suicide
rate between the Catholic and
Protestant populations,

31. ACTIVITY 1: PICTURE ANALYSIS
Instructions: Look at the picture as shown. Find out the meaning of the following
words. Write your answers on your activity notebook.

32. QUIZ