DISCIPLINES AND IDEAS IN SOCIAL SCIENCE

• Domain


  A sphere of knowledge, influence or activity
• Discipline


  A particular branch of learning or body of knowledge, such as physics, sociology and history
• Empiricism


  The view that all rationally acceptable beliefs or propositions are justifiable or knowable only through experience
• Categories of Human Knowledge

  • Natural Sciences
  • Social Sciences
  • Humanities
  • Applied Professions
• Natural Sciences


  • Aims to predict various phenomena in nature
  • Also known as "hard sciences"
  • Disciplines: biology, chemistry, earth sciences, and physics
• Social Sciences


  • Attempts to explain and describe human behavior in a society
  • Also known as "soft sciences"
  • Disciplines: anthropology, economics, psychology, and sociology
• Humanities


  • Branch of learning that investigates human constructs and concerns as opposed to natural processes and social relations
  • Tends to humanize humans as they express themselves in various forms
  • Disciplines: art, music, and literature
• Applied Professions


  • The application of scientific knowledge to practical problems
  • Disciplines: nursing, medicine, education, and law
• Society


  People in general thought of as living together in organized community with shared laws
• Science


  Knowledge about or study of the natural world based on facts learned through experiments and observation
• Hypothesis


  Shrewd guess or inference that is formulated and provisionally adopted to explain observed facts or conditions and to guide in further investigation
• Important Characteristics of Sciences

  • Empirical
  • Propositional
  • Logical
  • Public
  • Problem Solving
  • Continuous
• The Disciplines of the Social Sciences

  • Anthropology
  • Economics
  • Geography
  • History
  • Linguistics
  • Political Science
  • Sociology
  • Psychology
• Anthropology


  The study of humankind, derived from the Greek words anthropos meaning "human" and logos meaning "word", an amalgamation of a branch of the natural sciences and the social sciences
• Branches of Anthropology


  • Physical anthropology
  • Cultural anthropology
  • Archaeology
  • Linguistic anthropology
• Fossil


  Hardened remains or impressions of plants and animals that lived in the past
• Felipe Landa Jocano - dubbed as "the country's first and foremost cultural anthropologist"
• Ethnography


  Provides descriptive accounts which form the basis for comparative studies of many cultures
• Hominid


  Any of a family of erect bipedal primate mammals that includes recent humans
• Gene


  Part of a cell that controls or influences the appearance or growth of a living thing
• Primate


  A member of the mammalian order, includes monkeys, apes, and humans
• Forensic


  Relating to the use of scientific knowledge or methods in solving crimes
• Culture


  Customary ways of thinking and behaving of a particular population or society
• Gender


  The behavioral, cultural, or psychological traits typically associated with one sex
• Artifact


  Objects or materials made or modified for use by hominids
• Prehistory


  Period of time in the past before people could write
• Economics


  Discipline that concentrates on how a particular society solves its problem of scarcity of resources, derived from the Greek words oikos meaning "house" and nomos meaning "custom" or "law"
• Branches of Economics

  • Macroeconomics
  • Microeconomics
• Balance of trade


  Difference in value between a country's imports and exports over a certain period of time
• Money


  Medium of exchange in our economy according to Aristotle
• Fiscal Policy


  The use of government spending and taxation to influence the economy
• John Maynard Keynes - "government intervention can stabilize the economy"
• Adam Smith - father of economics
• Geography


  The study of the features of the earth and the location of living things on the planet, derived from the Greek word geographia, geo meaning "earth" and graphe meaning "to describe"
• Branches of Geography

  • Physical geography
  • Human geography
• Eratosthenes - a renowned scholar from ancient Greece who first used the term geography; father of geography
• Marco Polo - italian navigator/explorer
• China - first to use the compass
• Migration


  Movement of people from one country or place to another to live or work
• History


  Branch of knowledge that attempts to ascertain, record and explain facts and events that happened in the past, originated from the Greek word historia which means "inquiry"