What subjects are included in social sciences? Social Sciences

Social studies, profile level

Lesson 1-2

Chapter I. SOCIAL AND HUMANITIES KNOWLEDGE AND PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

Natural scientific and social-humanitarian knowledge, their common features and differences (Science and Philosophy)

D.Z: § 1, ?? (p. 9), assignments for the document (p. 10)

© A.I. Kolmakov

• give an idea of ​​the content of social disciplines, their relationship and interaction;
• develop analytical thinking skills;
• cultivate cognitive interest in studying society

• social science;
• social and humanitarian knowledge;
• sociology as a science;
• political science as a science;
• social psychology as a science;
• philosophy;
• subject of science;
• philosophical pluralism;
• speculative activity.

Learning new material

• Natural scientific and social-humanitarian knowledge.
• Sociology, political science, social psychology as social sciences.
• Specificity of philosophical knowledge.
• How philosophy helps to understand society

Remember. How is social studies different from history? What do they have in common? How do they differ from physics, chemistry, biology?

Sciences, like people, live in families

chemistry

story

Organic chemistry

Civil history

Inorganic chemistry

Military history

Physical chemistry

Archeology

Medicinal chemistry

Ethnography

The ancestor of sciences is philosophy

Learning new material

• Classification of social sciences and humanities.
• Sociology, political science, social psychology as social sciences.
• Philosophy as a social science.

Problem. What connection exists between the sciences and philosophy? What are their similarities and differences?

Science- systematically organized knowledge based on facts obtained through empirical research methods based on the measurement of real phenomena

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

Social Sciences Group

Social Sciences

Historical sciences

Subject of study

Domestic history, general history, archeology, ethnography, historiography, etc.

Economic Sciences

Economic theory, economics and management of the national economy, accounting, statistics, etc.

Story - the science of the past of mankind, a method of systematization and classification. It is the basis of humanitarian education, its fundamental principle.

Ethnography – the science of the origin, composition, settlement, ethnic and national relations of peoples.

Economy establishes the nature of the laws operating in the sphere of production and the market, regulating the measure and form of distribution of labor and its results.

Social Sciences Group

Social Sciences

Philosophical sciences

Subject of study

History of philosophy, logic, ethics, aesthetics, etc.

Philosophy is the most ancient and fundamental science, establishing the most general patterns of development of nature and society. Philosophy performs a cognitive function in social science. Ethics - 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, the way of embodying the ideals of humanity in painting, music, architecture and other areas of culture

Social Sciences Group

Social Sciences

Philological sciences

Subject of study

Literary studies, linguistics, journalism, etc.

Legal sciences

Theory and history of state and law, history of legal doctrines, constitutional law, etc.

These sciences study language. Language- a set of signs used by members of society for communication, as well as within the framework of secondary modeling systems (fiction, poetry, texts, etc.)

Jurisprudence records and explains the state. government norms, rights and obligations of citizens arising from the fundamental law of the country - the Constitution, and develops a legislative framework on this basis o6 society

Social Sciences Group

Social Sciences

Pedagogical Sciences

Subject of study

General pedagogy, history of pedagogy and education, theory and methods of teaching and education, etc.

Psychological Sciences

General psychology, personality psychology, social and political psychology, etc.

Analyze individual personal processes, the correlation of physiological, mental and socio-psychological characteristics characteristic of a person of a certain age

Social psychology - border discipline. It was formed at the intersection of sociology and psychology. It examines human behavior, feelings and motivation in a group situation. She studies the social basis of personality formation. Political psychology studies the subjective mechanisms of political behavior, the influence on it of consciousness and the subconscious, emotions and will of a person, his beliefs, value orientations and attitudes

Social Sciences Group

Social Sciences

Sociological sciences

Subject of study

Theory, methodology and history of sociology, economic sociology and demography, etc.

Political science

Theory of politics, history and methodology of political science, political conflictology, political technologies, etc.

Sociology explores the relationships between the main social groups of modern society, the motives and patterns of human behavior

Political science studies the political system of society, identifies connections between parties and public organizations with state institutions of governance. The development of political science characterizes the degree of maturity of civil society

Social Sciences Group

Social Sciences

Cultural studies

Subject of study

Theory and history of culture, musicology, etc.

Culturology is one of the young scientific disciplines emerging at the intersection of many sciences. It synthesizes the knowledge about culture accumulated by humanity into an integral system, forming ideas about the essence, functions, structure and dynamics of the development of culture as such.

operate

• Social (public) sciences - a set of disciplines whose object of study is society.

Maslow's pyramid

PRICE,

SAMORA

ALIZATION

How others rate you

Social needs

Safety

Physiological needs

Story (Greek Ιστορία, "research") - a social science that studies humanity's past as a historical process.

The original meaning of the word means “investigation, recognition, establishment.”

History was identified with establishing the authenticity and truth of events and facts.

Currently, the word "history" is used in two senses:

• to denote a story about the past;
• when it comes to science studying the past.

Muse Clio, patroness of the history of Ancient Greece

Scroll and wand in her hands is a symbol that nothing should disappear without a trace, dissolve in time.

PHILOSOPHY (Greek phileo - love, sophia - wisdom; love of wisdom) - a form of knowledge of the world. The word “philosophy” was first coined by the Greek philosopher Pythagoras in the 6th century BC e. Philosophy can also be defined as the search for answers to the eternal problems of human existence (What is the meaning of life?)

Philosophy strives to create a generalized picture of the world and man’s place in it!

Materialism

(matter)

Idealism

(consciousness)

Sociology (from Latin socius - social and other Greek λóγος - teaching) - a science that studies the forms of people living together. It originated in the 19th century. Its creator is the French philosopher O. Comte.

Sociology as a science uses a number of methods:

• Observation
• Experiment
• Questionnaire
• Interview
• Document analysis

Psychology (Greek ψυχή - soul and logos - word, thought, knowledge, literally - soulology, knowledge of the human soul) - the science of human mental activity.

It is often said that psychology is the science of the soul, from which the study of the soul is excluded. Psychology must answer the question of why a person behaves in one way or another. .

Cultural studies (Greek λόγος - word, doctrine) - a science that studies culture. Cultural studies appeared in the 19th century. It introduces people to the spiritual wealth of different cultures of all mankind.

Cultural studies examines different eras:

• Religious
• Archaic
• Modern, etc.

Social Sciences : history, philosophy, sociology, cultural studies, psychology.

• Story studies the past of humanity.
• Philosophy discovers the world.
• Philosophy studies materialism And idealism.
• Sociology studies society.
• Psychology studies the human psyche.
• Cultural studies studies human culture.

Φιλοσοφία

φιλειν - to love

σοφία – wisdom

“Philosophy cognizes being from man and through man, in man it sees the answer to meaning, but science cognizes existence as if outside man, detached from man. Therefore, for philosophy being is spirit, but for science being is nature.”

N. A. Berdyaev

Pythagoras ( VI V. BC)

The science of the most common laws of the universe (about the world as a whole)

Knowledge free from dogma, but has not reached scientific level

accuracy

Russell

Aristotle

Studying not the world itself, and the relationship between man and the world

Philosophy

Ontology (metaphysics)

Epistemology (epistemology)

Ethics (axiology)

doctrine of being

doctrine of knowledge

doctrine of the good and values

Metaphysics ( Greek . μετά τά φυσικά , what comes after physics) – philosophical doctrine of highly experienced principles and the laws of existence in general or any type of being; sometimes used as a synonym for the word "philosophy" or comes closer to the concept "ontology".

Ontology ( Greek . όν , genus. όντος , existing, And λόγος , word, concept) – section of philosophy,

studying fundamental principles of existence, most common entities and categories of existence; sometimes identified With metaphysics, but is more often seen as its fundamental part those. as a metaphysics of being .

Epistemology ( Greek . γνώσις , knowledge,

Epistemology ( Greek . επιςτήμη , knowledge, And λόγος , word, concept) – theory of knowledge; synonym of the word "epistemology", used in English and French.

cognition, And λόγος , word, concept) – theory of knowledge, section of philosophy, nature student and the possibilities of knowledge, its prerequisites, means, and conditions of reliability.

Ethics ( Greek . ηθικ ά , from ηθικός , pertaining to temperament character; lat . ethics ) – section of philosophy, moral student as a sphere of highest values and oughts and morality as a side human life and form of public consciousness.

Axiology ( Greek . αξια , value, And λόγος , word, concept) – doctrine of value, philosophical discipline, studying the characteristics structure and hierarchies value world, its ontological status and ways of knowing, nature and specificity value judgments.

Greece

China

India

Test yourself

• What is history?
• What does philosophy strive for?
• Fundamental questions of philosophy?
• What methods does sociology use?
• What is the role of psychology?
• What does cultural studies study?

1) What are the most significant differences between the social sciences and the natural sciences?

2) Give examples of various classifications of scientific knowledge. What is their basis?

3) Name the main groups of social sciences and humanities distinguished by the subject of research.

4) What is the subject of sociology? Describe the levels of sociological knowledge.

5) What does political science study?

6) What is the connection between social psychology and related areas of scientific knowledge?

7) What distinguishes and what brings together philosophy and science?

8) What problems and why are they considered eternal questions of philosophy?

9) How is the pluralism of philosophical thought expressed?

10) What are the main sections of philosophical knowledge?

11) Show the role of social philosophy in understanding society.

reflection

• What did you learn?
• In what way?
• What did you learn?
• What difficulties did you experience?
• Was the lesson interesting?

Social sciences, often called social sciences, study the laws, facts and dependencies of the socio-historical process, as well as the goals, motives and values ​​of man. They differ from art in that they use the scientific method and standards to study society, including qualitative and quantitative analysis of problems. The result of these studies is the analysis of social processes and the discovery of patterns and recurring events in them.

Social Sciences

The first group includes sciences that provide the most general knowledge about society, primarily sociology. Sociology studies society and the laws of its development, the functioning of social communities and the relationships between them. This multi-paradigm science views social mechanisms as self-sufficient means of regulating social relations. Most paradigms are divided into two areas - microsociology and macrosociology.

Sciences about certain areas of social life

This group of social sciences includes economics, political science, ethics and aesthetics. Culturology studies the interaction of cultures in individual and mass consciousness. The object of economic research is economic reality. Due to its breadth, this science represents a whole discipline that differs from each other in the subject of study. Economic disciplines include: macro- and econometrics, mathematical methods of economics, statistics, industrial and engineering economics, history of economic doctrines and many others.

Ethics is the study of morality and ethics. Metaethics studies the origin and meaning of ethical categories and concepts using logical analysis. Normative ethics is devoted to the search for principles that regulate human behavior and guide his actions.

Sciences about all spheres of social life

These sciences permeate all spheres of public life, these are jurisprudence (jurisprudence) and history. Relying on various sources, the past of humanity. The subject of the study of jurisprudence is law as a socio-political phenomenon, as well as a set of generally binding certain rules of behavior established by the state. Jurisprudence views the state as an organization of political power that ensures the management of the affairs of the entire society with the help of law and a specially created state apparatus.

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.

So, we found out that there is no consensus on 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).

From history of the formation of social sciences and humanities

Previously, subject areas known as political science, law, ethics, psychology and economics fell under the purview of philosophy. The classics of ancient philosophy Plato, Socrates and Aristotle were confident that all the diversity of the surrounding person and the world he perceives can be subjected to scientific research.

Aristotle (384-322 BC) declared that all people are by nature inclined to knowledge. Some of the first things people want to know about are questions like: why PEOPLE behave the way they do, where social institutions come from and how they function. The current social sciences appeared only thanks to the enviable tenacity of the ancient Greeks in their desire to analyze everything and think rationally. Since ancient thinkers were philosophers, the result of their reflections was considered part of philosophy, not social sciences.

If ancient thought was philosophical in nature, then medieval thought was theological. While the natural sciences freed themselves from the tutelage of philosophy and received their own name at the end of the Middle Ages, the social sciences remained for a long time in the sphere of influence of philosophy and theology. The main reason was, apparently, that the subject of the social sciences - human behavior - was closely connected with divine Providence and therefore was under the jurisdiction of the church.

The Renaissance, which revived interest in knowledge and learning, did not mark the beginning of the independent development of the social sciences. Renaissance scholars studied more Greek and Latin texts, especially the works of Plato and Aristotle. Their own writings often amounted to conscientious commentaries on the ancient classics.

The turn occurred only in the 17th-18th centuries, when a galaxy of outstanding philosophers appeared in Europe: the Frenchman Rene Descartes (1596-1650), the Englishmen Francis Bacon (1561-1626), Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) and John Locke (1632-1704) , German Immanuel Kant (1724-1804). They, as well as the French educators Charles Louis Montesquieu (1689-1755) and Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), studied the functions of government (political science) and the nature of society (sociology). English philosophers David Hume (1711-1776) and George Berkeley (1685-1753), as well as Kant and Locke, tried to figure out the laws of the action of reason (psychology), and Adam Smith created the first great treatise on economics, “An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.” (1776).

The era in which they worked is called the Enlightenment. It looked at man and human society differently, freeing our ideas from religious shackles. The Enlightenment posed the traditional question differently: not how God created man, but how people create gods, society, institutions. Philosophers continued to think about these questions until the 19th century.

The emergence of social sciences was greatly influenced by the dramatic changes in society that occurred in the 18th century.

The dynamism of social life favored the liberation of the social sciences from the shackles of philosophy. Another condition for the liberation of social knowledge was the development of natural sciences, primarily physics, which changed the way people think. If the material world can be the subject of precise measurement and analysis, then why cannot the social world be so? The French philosopher Auguste Comte (1798-1857) was the first to try to answer this question. In his “Course of Positive Philosophy” (1830-1842), he proclaimed the emergence of a “science of man,” calling it sociology.

According to Comte, the science of society should be on a par with the sciences of nature. His views at that time were shared by the English philosopher, sociologist and lawyer Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), who saw in morality and legislation the art of guiding the actions of people, the English philosopher and sociologist Herbert Spencer (1820-1903), who developed the mechanistic doctrine of universal evolution, the German philosopher and economist Karl Marx (1818-1883), founder of the theory of classes and social conflict, and English philosopher and economist John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), who wrote fundamental works on inductive logic and political economy. They believed that a single society should be studied by a single science. Meanwhile, at the end of the 19th century. the study of society has split into many disciplines and specialties. A similar thing happened a little earlier in physics.

Specialization of knowledge is an inevitable and objective process.

The first among the social sciences to stand out economy. Although the term “economics” was used as early as 1790, the subject of this science was called political economy until the end of the 19th century. The founder of classical economics was the Scottish economist and philosopher Adam Smith (1723-1790). In his “Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations” (1776), he examined the theory of value and distribution of income, capital and its accumulation, the economic history of Western Europe, views on economic policy, and state finances. A. Smith approached economics as a system in which objective laws that are amenable to knowledge operate. Classics of economic thought also include David Ricardo (“Principles of Political Economy and Taxation”, 1817), John Stuart Mill (“Principles of Political Economy”, 1848), Alfred Marshall (“Principles of Economics”, 1890), Karl Marx (“Capital” , 1867).

Economics studies the behavior of large masses of people in a market situation. In small and large - in public and private life - 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.

Like sociology, economics deals with large masses. The global market covers 5 billion people. A crisis in Russia or Indonesia is immediately reflected on the stock exchanges of Japan, America and Europe. When manufacturers are preparing the next batch of new products for sale, they are interested not in the opinion of an individual Petrov or Vasechkin, or even a small group, but in large masses of people. This is understandable, because the law of profit requires producing more and at a lower price, receiving maximum revenue from turnover, and not from one piece.

Without studying the behavior of people in a market situation, economics risks remaining simply a technique of calculation - profit, capital, interest, interconnected by abstract theoretical constructs.

Political science refers to the academic discipline that studies forms of government and the political life of society. The foundations of political science were laid by the ideas of Plato (“Republic”) and Aristotle (“Politics”), who lived in the 4th century. BC e. Political phenomena were also analyzed by the Roman senator Cicero. During the Renaissance, the most famous thinker was Niccolò Machiavelli (The Prince, 1513). Hugo Grozi published On the Laws of War and Peace in 1625. During the Enlightenment, questions about the nature of the state and the functioning of government were addressed by thinkers. Among them were Bacon, Hobbes, Locke, Montesquieu and Rousseau. Political science became an independent discipline thanks to the works of the French philosophers Comte and Claude Henri de Saint-Simon (1760-1825).

The term "political science" is used in Western countries to distinguish scientific theories, rigorous methods and statistical analysis that are applied to the study of the activities of the state and political parties and which are reflected in the term political philosophy. For example, Aristotle, although considered the father of political science, was actually a political philosopher. If political science answers the question of how the political life of society is really structured, then political philosophy answers the question of how this life should be structured, what should be done with the state, which political regimes are correct and which are incorrect.

In our country there is no distinction between political science and political philosophy. Instead of two terms, one is used - political science. Political science, in contrast to sociology, which concerns 95% of the population, affects only the tip of the iceberg - those who actually have power, participate in the struggle for it, manipulate public opinion, participate in the redistribution of public property, lobby parliament for favorable decisions, organize political parties etc. Basically, political scientists build speculative concepts, although in the second half of the 1990s. There has been some progress in this area as well. Some applied areas of political science have emerged as an independent area, in particular the technology of conducting political elections.

Cultural anthropology was a consequence of the discovery of the New World by Europeans. The unfamiliar American Indian tribes amazed the imagination with their customs and way of life. After this, the attention of scientists was attracted by the wild tribes of Africa, Oceania and Asia. Anthropology, which literally means “the science of man,” was primarily interested in primitive, or preliterate, societies. Cultural anthropology is the comparative study of human societies, In Europe it is also called ethnography and ethnology.

Among the outstanding ethnologists of the 19th century, that is, scientists involved in comparative studies of culture, are the English ethnographer, researcher of primitive culture Edward Burnett Tylor (1832-1917), who developed the animistic theory of the origin of religion, the American historian and ethnographer Lewis Henry Morgan (1818- 1881), in the book “Ancient Society” (1877), the first to show the importance of the clan as the main unit of primitive society, the German ethnographer Adolf Bastian (1826-1905), who founded the Berlin Museum of Ethnic Studies (1868) and wrote the book “People of East Asia” (1866- 1871). The English historian of religion James George Fraser (1854-1941), who wrote the world-famous book “The Golden Bough” (1907-1915), although he worked already in the 20th century, is also one of the pioneers of cultural anthropology.

Occupies a special place among the social sciences sociology, which in translation (lat. society- society, Greek logos- knowledge, teaching, science) literally means knowledge about society. Sociology is the science of people’s lives, based on strict and verified facts, statistics and mathematical analysis, and facts are often taken from life itself - from mass surveys of the opinions of ordinary people. Sociology for Comte, who coined its name, meant the systematic study of people. At the beginning of the 19th century. O. Comte built a pyramid of scientific knowledge. He arranged all the then known fundamental fields of knowledge - mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry and biology - in a hierarchical order so that the simplest and most abstract sciences were at the bottom. Above them were placed more specific and more complex ones. The most complex science turned out to be sociology - the science of society. O. Comte thought of sociology as a comprehensive field of knowledge that studies history, politics, economics, culture and the development of society.

However, European science, contrary to Comte's expectations, did not follow the path of synthesis, but, on the contrary, along the path of differentiation and splitting of knowledge. The economic sphere of society began to be studied by the independent science of economics, the political sphere - political science, the spiritual world of man - psychology, the traditions and customs of peoples - ethnography and cultural anthropology, and population dynamics - demography. And sociology became a narrow discipline that no longer covered the entire society, but studied in detail only one, the social sphere.

The formation of the subject of sociology was greatly influenced by the Frenchman Emile Durkheim (“Rules of the Sociological Method”, 1395), the Germans Ferdinand Tönnies (“Community and Society”, 1887), Georg Simmel (“Sociology”, 1908), Max Weber (“Protestant Ethics and spirit of capitalism”, 1904-1905), Italian Vilfredo Pareto (“Mind and Society”, 1916), Englishman Herbert Spencer (“Principles of Sociology”, 1876-1896), Americans Lester F. Ward (“Applied Sociology”, 1906) and William Graham Sumner (The Science of Society, 1927-1928).

Sociology arose as a response to the needs of an emerging civil society. Today, sociology is divided into many branches, including criminology and demography. It has become a science that helps society understand itself more deeply and more specifically. By widely using empirical methods - questionnaires and observation, document analysis and observation methods, experiment and generalization of statistics - sociology was able to overcome the limitations of social philosophy, which operates with overly generalized models.

Public opinion polls on the eve of elections, analysis of the distribution of political forces in the country, the value orientations of voters or participants in the strike movement, studying the level of social tension in a particular region - this is not a complete list of issues that are increasingly being resolved by means of sociology.

Social psychology - This is a borderline 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. In general, we live in small, not large 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.

Social psychology is the field of study of human behavior, feelings and motivation, in a group situation. She studies the social basis of personality formation. Social psychology emerged as an independent science at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1908, American psychologist William McDougal published the book “Introduction to Social Psychology,” which, thanks to its title, gave its name to the new discipline.

Social and humanitarian knowledge is knowledge of the peculiarities of the structure of society. Let's try to understand the specificity of such knowledge.

Nuances of social sciences and humanities

Currently, there is such a problem as the classification of social sciences and humanities. Some authors recommend dividing them into humanitarian and social disciplines. Others believe that such a division is inappropriate. Such differences in views became an excellent reason for the work of the Institute of Social and Humanitarian Knowledge.

Feature of social sciences

They represent a detailed study of society, as well as all its existing spheres: legal, political, economic. In order to get acquainted with the features of this humanitarian direction, researchers are analyzing changes in the composition of the administration. Social sciences include jurisprudence, political science, history, philosophy, and economics.

Humanities

They include religious studies, cultural studies, psychology, and pedagogy. There are many similarities between the humanitarian and social disciplines, so this area is a special region of knowledge.

Signs

Since social and humanitarian knowledge is a separate direction of scientific knowledge, it must have certain characteristics. Among the features of the social sciences and humanities, we highlight the importance of taking into account the phenomenon of freedom. If (chemistry, biology, physics) are aimed at studying natural processes associated with living nature, then social and humanitarian knowledge is primarily the study of human activity in artistic, legal, and economic activities. Man's work does not happen, it is accomplished. If natural processes have no freedom, then human activity is completely independent. That is why social and humanitarian knowledge is a minimum of certainty, a maximum of hypotheticalness.

Features of social sciences and humanities

The specificity of this direction is that it is important to study subjective reality. If the object of study of natural sciences is material objects, then humanists are engaged in the study of material systems, and therefore the analysis of objective reality. The social and humanitarian profile is associated with Since it is sovereign, that is, inherent in a particular subject, it is quite difficult to conduct research in this direction. For many people, the consciousness of a specific subject is inaccessible. They can only see external manifestations in the form of speech and actions that are controlled by consciousness. It is by these that others evaluate the interlocutor. But the problem is that underneath the outward decency there may well be either a real criminal or a very vulnerable person hidden.

Problems

The Institute of Social and Humanitarian Knowledge also faces the problem of the ideality of consciousness. It does not have certain chemical and physical properties, such as oxidation state, valency, or nuclear charge. Its peculiarity is that it is ethereal, incorporeal. In essence, information is provided in an ideal form, regardless of the direct medium - the brain. It is for these reasons that it is not possible to record consciousness using objective methods. A person’s feelings cannot be measured with a ruler, nor can they be determined with a dynamometer. A variety of medical and physical devices make it possible to record only physiological brain processes that are carriers of consciousness. For example, you can establish the frequency of excitation of nerve cells and their spatial structure. Consciousness is given to man as internal, subjective experiences. It cannot be determined by instruments, it can only be felt. Despite all the difficulties that exist in the study of human spirituality, they cannot be considered insurmountable. The social and humanitarian profile involves a detailed study of the speech and activities of people, gaining knowledge about the structure, composition, and functions of human consciousness.

Methods

The structure of social and humanitarian knowledge is impossible without the most important methods: empathy, and translated from Latin means introspection, studying a person’s personal spiritual life, and analyzing one’s own experiences. It allows you to gain insight into your own consciousness. Without the existence of this method, a person would not be able to study it or manage it.

Empathy (translated from English it sounds like empathy) is the penetration of one person into the inner world of another, the perception of other people's thoughts and feelings as their own personal qualities. When conducting research, the Institute of Social and Humanitarian Knowledge pays special attention to identifying similar emotions in a group of like-minded people who have together endured some dangers and difficulties. This method is based on sympathy, that is, internal disposition (empathy) for a person.

Sympathy

It can be considered an emotionally charged unconscious positive assessment of a person’s actions, based on the experience of communication. With its help, commonality between different people is manifested. The specificity of social and humanitarian knowledge is that only it involves the use of empathy and introspection. When studying natural processes, such methods are not used.

Uniqueness of the studied objects

Knowledge has a high degree of uniqueness of the objects under consideration. They have a unique set of certain properties, which adds problems when creating a unified research system in the humanitarian field. If a physicist is faced with only a few terms, a biologist with two pine trees, then a teacher or lawyer must work with two completely different people. Comparing the chemical reaction with the growth of birch and with economic reform, we note that different methods will be required to study them in detail. For technical and natural sciences, the use of an individual approach is not necessary, because the objects considered in these sciences are of the same type. The differences are mostly minor and can be overlooked. But a teacher, psychologist, lawyer does not have the opportunity to abstract from the characteristics of a person. The classification of social sciences and humanities is multifaceted, since there are many varieties in each science.

Explanation of social and humanitarian objects

To do this, it is necessary to establish the features of the manifestation of a certain law in a specific object. Otherwise, it will not be possible to fully explain the object or carry out practical actions with it. To identify an individual or social group at a given moment, the category of mentality is used. Such research is much more difficult than studying the individual spiritual world of a person. Identifying mentality means identifying the unique from the individual, that is, selecting socio-psychological characteristics.

Study algorithm

The Institute of Social and Humanitarian Knowledge (Kazan) has been developing a sequence of actions aimed at studying the unique characteristics of a living subject for a long period of time. As a result, two main stages were identified:

• identification of signs of various subjects, as well as the degree of their severity;
• comparison of their different subjects, determination on the basis of this specific characteristics, identification for each mentality.

If such a comparison is not made, we will talk about the study of personality, consciousness, but not about mentality. Psychologists and sociologists understand the importance of taking into account the laws of functioning of the objects under study. In the social and humanitarian sphere, static laws are applied. They have probabilistic causation; a cause can generate one of different actions. That is why all predictions in social science and humanities are approximate, but in technology and nature they are clear and accurate.

Among the features of the direction under consideration, we highlight the limited use of a full-fledged experiment in them. For example, when studying the history of a particular country, it is inappropriate to talk about an experiment, because the events have already happened. Research in sociology cannot be used to analyze interethnic relations. Experiments are also inappropriate when studying population migration. It is incorrect to deliberately relocate people, change their living conditions, wage levels, family composition in order to get some result. In addition, there are ethical restrictions for conducting research in the social sciences and humanities. Experiments that may harm people's health, humiliate human dignity, or infringe upon authority are prohibited. Due to limited experience, the empirical base in this area will be less reliable than in technical disciplines. The social direction uses certain scientific criteria:

• rationality;
• evidence;
• experimental and practical verifiability;
• the ability to reproduce empirical material;
• essentiality.

The evidence base in the social and humanitarian cycle is less serious and rigorous than in the exact sciences. The reason is the insufficient number of theoretical provisions and established facts. Often, instead of laws, psychologists and teachers act intuitively to study certain objects.

Conclusion

In the humanitarian sphere, empirical testability involves the use of observations, interviews, questionnaires, and testing. Reproduction of facts is possible only if there are results of statistical research on the identified topic. If the experiment fails, evidence from several sources is considered an alternative. For example, in jurisprudence and pedagogy they use the testimony of participants in an event. All are complex multi-level hierarchically built systems. In order to fully study the systems, a significant period of time is required.

The German philosopher W. Dilthey said that the main criterion for distinguishing sciences of various types is the method used. It was the German scientist who proposed dividing all sciences into those that study the spirit and those that study the laws of nature. Not only the analysis of the person himself, but also acquaintance with texts and ancient manuscripts is widely used in the social and humanitarian cycle. Understanding and interpreting certain information helps psychologists, teachers, and lawyers to cope with the tasks assigned to them, first of all, to study the individual characteristics of each individual.

Social Sciences – a form of spiritual activity of people, directions for the production of knowledge about society.

Since society is a complex and multidimensional concept, each of the social sciences examines a defining area of ​​social life. The most general knowledge about society as a whole is intended to be provided by such sciences as philosophy and sociology.

Sample assignment

A1. Choose the correct answer. Which science is superfluous in the list of sciences that have as their immediate subject the problem of man?

1) philosophical anthropology

2) economics

3) sociology

4) social

5) psychology

Answer: 2.

Topic 7. Social and humanitarian knowledge

The question of the uniqueness of social knowledge is a subject of debate in the history of philosophical thought.

Social and humanitarian knowledge are interpenetrated. Without a person there is no society. But a person cannot exist without society.

Features of humanitarian knowledge: understanding; appeal to texts letters and public speeches, diaries and policy statements, works of fiction and critical reviews, etc.; the impossibility of reducing knowledge to unambiguous, universally accepted definitions.

Humanitarian knowledge is designed to influence a person, spiritualize, transform his moral, ideological, ideological guidelines, and contribute to the development of his human qualities.

Social and humanitarian knowledge is the result of social cognition.

Social cognition – the process of acquiring and developing knowledge about man and society.

Knowledge of society and the processes occurring in it, along with features common to all cognitive activity, also has significant differences from knowledge of nature.

Features of social cognition

1. The subject and object of knowledge coincide. Social life is permeated by the consciousness and will of man; it is essentially subject-objective and represents, on the whole, a subjective reality. It turns out that the subject here cognizes the subject (cognition turns out to be self-knowledge).

2. The resulting social knowledge is always associated with the interests of individual subjects of knowledge. Social cognition directly affects people's interests.

3. Social knowledge is always loaded with evaluation; it is value knowledge. Natural science is instrumental through and through, while social science is the service of truth as a value, as truth; natural sciences are “truths of the mind,” social sciences are “truths of the heart.”

4. The complexity of the object of knowledge - society, which has a variety of different structures and is in constant development. Therefore, the establishment of social laws is difficult, and open social laws are probabilistic in nature. Unlike natural science, social science makes predictions impossible (or very limited).

5. Since social life changes very quickly, in the process of social cognition we can talk about establishing only relative truths.

6. The possibility of using such a method of scientific knowledge as experiment is limited. The most common method of social research is scientific abstraction; in social cognition the role of thinking is extremely important.

The correct approach to them allows us to describe and understand social phenomena. This means that social cognition must be based on the following principles.

– consider social reality in development;

– study social phenomena in their diverse connections and interdependence;

– identify the general (historical patterns) and the specific in social phenomena.

Any knowledge of society by a person begins with the perception of real facts of economic, social, political, spiritual life - the basis of knowledge about society and people’s activities.

Science distinguishes the following types of social facts.

For a fact to become scientific, it must be interpret(Latin interpretatio – interpretation, explanation). First of all, the fact is brought under some scientific concept. Next, all the essential facts that make up the event are studied, as well as the situation (setting) in which it occurred, and the diverse connections of the fact being studied with other facts are traced.

Thus, the interpretation of a social fact is a complex multi-stage procedure for its interpretation, generalization, and explanation. Only an interpreted fact is a truly scientific fact. A fact presented only in the description of its characteristics is just raw material for scientific conclusions.

Associated with the scientific explanation of the fact is its grade, which depends on the following factors:

– properties of the object being studied (event, fact);

– correlation of the object being studied with others, one ordinal, or with an ideal;

– cognitive tasks set by the researcher;

– personal position of the researcher (or just a person);

– interests of the social group to which the researcher belongs.

Sample assignments

Read the text and complete the tasks C1‑C4.

“The specificity of cognition of social phenomena, the specificity of social science is determined by many factors. And, perhaps, the main one among them is society itself (man) as an object of knowledge. Strictly speaking, this is not an object (in the natural scientific sense of the word). The fact is that social life is thoroughly permeated with the consciousness and will of man; it is essentially subject-objective and represents, on the whole, a subjective reality. It turns out that the subject here cognizes the subject (cognition turns out to be self-knowledge). However, this cannot be done using natural scientific methods. Natural science embraces and can master the world only in an objective (as an object-thing) way. It really deals with situations where the object and the subject are, as it were, on opposite sides of the barricades and therefore so distinguishable. Natural science turns the subject into an object. But what does it mean to turn a subject (a person, after all, in the final analysis) into an object? This means killing the most important thing in him - his soul, making him into some kind of lifeless scheme, a lifeless structure.<…>The subject cannot become an object without ceasing to be itself. The subject can only be known in a subjective way - through understanding (and not an abstract general explanation), feeling, survival, empathy, as if from the inside (and not detachedly, from the outside, as in the case of an object).<…>

What is specific in social science is not only the object (subject-object), but also the subject. Everywhere, in any science, passions are in full swing; without passions, emotions and feelings there is no and cannot be a human search for truth. But in social studies their intensity is perhaps the highest” (Grechko P.K. Social studies: for those entering universities. Part I. Society. History. Civilization. M., 1997. pp. 80–81.).

C1. Based on the text, indicate the main factor that determines the specifics of cognition of social phenomena. What, according to the author, are the features of this factor?

Answer: The main factor that determines the specifics of cognition of social phenomena is its object – society itself. The features of the object of knowledge are associated with the uniqueness of society, which is permeated with the consciousness and will of man, which makes it a subjective reality: the subject knows the subject, i.e. knowledge turns out to be self-knowledge.

Answer: According to the author, the difference between social science and natural science lies in the difference in the objects of knowledge and its methods. Thus, in social science, the object and subject of knowledge coincide, but in natural science they are either divorced or significantly different; natural science is a monological form of knowledge: the intellect contemplates a thing and speaks about it; social science is a dialogical form of knowledge: the subject as such cannot be perceived and studied as a thing, because as a subject he cannot, while remaining a subject, become voiceless; in social science, knowledge is carried out as if from within, in natural science - from the outside, detached, with the help of abstract general explanations.

C3. Why does the author believe that in social science the intensity of passions, emotions and feelings is the highest? Give your explanation and, based on knowledge of a social science course and the facts of social life, give three examples of the “emotionality” of cognition of social phenomena.

Answer: The author believes that in social science the intensity of passions, emotions and feelings is the highest, since here there is always a personal attitude of the subject to the object, a vital interest in what is being learned. As examples of the “emotionality” of cognition of social phenomena, the following can be cited: supporters of the republic, studying the forms of the state, will seek confirmation of the advantages of the republican system over the monarchical one; monarchists will pay special attention to proving the shortcomings of the republican form of government and the merits of the monarchical one; The world-historical process has been considered in our country for a long time from the point of view of the class approach, etc.

C4. The specificity of social cognition, as the author notes, is characterized by a number of features, two of which are revealed in the text. Based on your knowledge of the social science course, indicate any three features of social cognition that are not reflected in the fragment.

Answer: As examples of the features of social cognition, the following can be cited: the object of cognition, which is society, is complex in its structure and is in constant development, which makes it difficult to establish social laws, and open social laws are probabilistic in nature; in social cognition the possibility of using such a method of scientific research as experiment is limited; in social cognition the role of thinking, its principles and methods (for example, scientific abstraction) is extremely important; Since social life changes quite quickly, in the process of social cognition we can talk about establishing only relative truths, etc.