HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS

IN SOCIAL SCIENCE
Presented by:
DARSANA M WARRIER
I B.ED. SOCIAL SCIENCE
ROLL NO. 45
UCTE MUVATTUPUZHA

EARLY THINKERS AND

WRITERS

HERODOTUS

ARISTOTLE

KAUTILYA

ISLAMIC DEVELOPMENTS

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

IBN KHALDUN (1332-1406)

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

EARLY MODERN

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.

REPRESENTATIVE FIGURES
OF THE 17TH CENTURY

JOHN LOCKE

THOMAS HOBBESDAVID HARDTLEYHUGO GROTIUS

LATE MODERN

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

LATE MODERN THINKERS

AUGUSTE COMTE

THOMAS HOBBES

SIR. ISSAC NEWTON

19th CENTURY

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

KARL MARX(1818-1833)

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.

ARCHITECTS OF
SOCIAL SCIENCE

EMILE DURKHEIM

KARL MARX

MAX WEBBER

DEVELOPMENT IN 20th CENTURY

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.

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.

MODERN TRENDS

The term conselience was

coined by William Whewell
Its meaning is jumping
together of knowledge
It refers to the principle that
evidence form independent unrelated sources can converge
to strong conclusions.
Anyway, we can say that the
historical developments in
social science is still
continuing