Ivan Lopez Mendoza
Ways of Knowing
Social Science
04/13/09
Essay #1
With every walk of life comes a separate background, understanding of the world and
personal beliefs. This concept can be fathomed through the study of social sciences which will
provide an understanding of social structure and cultural context. In order to understand how
social sciences address issues of social structure and cultural context, one must understand the
idea that society is grouped into scrupulously related groups that possess contrasting functions,
meanings and purposes. Social science can be defined by including political science, economics,
psychology, anthropology, sociology and the study of human culture. The discussed upon
subjects have a common relation which is their connection to the human actions of political
science and economics. Political science is the study of social behavior among the conduct of
governments and political institutions, while economics is the financial structure of a society.
Also, psychology is the study of the human mind, anthropology is the biological and social
interaction of cultures and sociology is the social relations among humans.
The following authors together theorized about political science, economics, psychology,
anthropology and sociology. Emile Durkheim was one of the first to use analytic methods for the
study of societies in the 1890s. Durkheim believed that isolation of the self increased chances of
suicide and also presented a theory of this belief but without testing of a hypothesis. Karl Marx
in the 19th century studied English trade and manufacturing statistics, published his own theories
as a description of capitalism system as a form of economic organization. Marx originated a
notion of social class and was one of the first scholars to integrate economic behavior into
historical interpretation and social analysis. Herbert Spencer was a sociologist of the late 19th
century who saw laws of change throughout human history and stages of social evolution and
laws of social development. Max Weber was a sociologist that who focused on the role of
bureaucracy and not capitalism, and leading influence on modern life. He also saw an impact of
religion on social and economic behavior. Weber, protestant religion’s emphasis on
individualism, hard work, deferred gratification, and rational planning interacted with social
economic changes of 17th century England and Holland to bolster capitalist endeavor.
The difference between a Sociologist and a historian is that a sociologist tends to examine
groups of persons, communities, and nations while a historian tends to study and write about the
past. John Lukacs stated that history is the memory of mankind which acknowledges what
adjusts and exists in the human life. Lukacs, researched and studied what it meant to be human.
Wilfred McClay, defines the understanding of history based off relevant and significant events in
the past. McClay study of this subject gives people the knowledge of what is important of
history. William A. Williams studied what we already know a way of learning in which “we can
see ourselves as we are as well as the way of like it to be.” John Tosh, studied empathy to show
others to see how they are based on their beliefs and cutlers. Carl Becker, studied the past of
human action, to help people in the future not to commit the same mistakes and also thought that
the value of history was moral and not scientific. That prepared people to live humanly in the
present and to meet, rather than foretell the future.
Historical methodology includes a collection of theories, concepts or ideas; comparative
study if different approaches and critique of the individual methods. For example, analytic
explores the significant of events and individual lives which sets concepts and methods by which
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historians gather past evidence. In order to state an argument you need evidence which you can
have primary sources or secondary sources, which can produce by a witness or non- witness. To
determine the meaning of the evidence you have to understand and analyze the context and
search for errors by, witness or creator of documents. Historians must select the fact they want
to obtain to state facts. Historians also used the concept tool called the paradigm to identify the
set of accepted beliefs and definitions of reality shared by a particular group. There are three
forms of historical writing; narrative, descriptive and analytic. Narrative focuses on stories, grate
events, biographies, local and family history, often with a literary or dramatic quality.
Descriptive describes what happened and its context while, analytic explores the significance of
the event and the individual lives. Descriptive and analytic can both be use to fine research into a
source materials, specializing work focusing on accuracy that establishes facts and chronology
from evidence and distinguish between relevant and irrelevant facts. There is also a combination,
comparison and arrangement of evidence of the historical explanation called synthesis. However,
there were four methodological problems; causation which was the greatest conceptual and
technical challenge of history, motivation which was a guess about an individual’s goals. Proof
was the disadvantage of the historians of not having laboratory experiments or complete range of
scientific method and the usually presented with plausible explanations consist with other
knowledge and connected to other evidence.
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