Disciplines and Ideas in

the Social
Science
Quarter 1 – Module 3:

HISTORICAL CONTEXT
OF THE EMERGENCE
OF SOCIAL SCIENCE
 1. EXPLAIN THE MAJOR EVENTS THAT LED TO THE
EMERGENCE OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCE
DISCIPLINES;
2. ENUMERATE THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF SOCIAL
SCIENCE DISCIPLINES; AND
3. DEMONSTRATE THE HISTORICAL FOUNDATION OF
SOCIAL SCIENCE DISCIPLINES.
 What I Know
Direction: Choose the letter of the correct answer. Write the chosen letter on a separate
sheet of paper.
1. Anthropology traces its roots to ancient __________ historical and
philosophical
writings about human nature and the organization of human society.
a. British c. French
b. European d. Greek
2. Anthropologists generally regard __________, a Greek historian who lived in the
400s B.C., as the first thinker to write widely on concepts that would later
become central to anthropology.
a. Charles Darwin c. Ibn Khaldun
b. Herodotus d. John Locke
3. The __________ economists developed the theories about how markets and
market economies work; focusing on the dynamics of economic growth.
a. Classical c. Neoclassical
b. Medieval d. Renaissance
4. The __________ was the first civilization to practice a form of
geography that was more than mere map making or cartography.
a. Greek c. Roman
b. Persian d. None of the above
5. Who hypothesized and scientifically demonstrated that the
Earth has a spherical shape?
c. Aristotle c. Herodotus
d. Eratosthenes d. Strabo
6. One of his important contributions include the creation of three
different methods for projecting the Earth’s surface on a map, the
calculation of coordinate locations.
e. Aristotle c. Herodotus
f. Eratosthenes d. Ptolemy
7. It is the oldest branch of sociolinguistics and the study of regional
differences in language.
a. Dialectology c. Language
Planning
b. Ethnography of Speaking d. Variationist Sociolinguistic

8. Who among the following is known as the father of political

science?
c. Aristotle c. Rene
Descartes
d. Plato d.
None of the Above
9. Who among the following is known as the father of modern political
science?
a. Aristotle c. Plato
b. Machiavelli d. Rene Descartes

10. Who published the “On the Origin of Species”, detailing his
view of evolution and expanding the theory of “Survival of the Fittest”?
c. Charles Darwin c. Franz Gall
d. Francis Galton d. Franz Mezmer
 Lesson Major Event and
1 Contribution of Social
Science Disciplines

In the development of the history of science, the histories of

the individual scientific disciplines have played an enormously
significant role. The goals and functions of these have recently
received considerable attention, both because of the influence
that such histories have had on the legitimacy and self-image
of the disciplines and also because of the adaptability that they
have shown when faced with the conceptual and
methodological changes that they have undergone.
 What is It

Just like an identical twin, the different disciplines of social science have
similarities despite of their differences.
According to Quexbook, 2018 Anthropology traces its roots to Ancient
Greek historical and philosophical writings about human nature and the
organization of human society.
According to Quexbook, 2018 The Modern Economics, which is still being
studied today, is the result of the efforts of ancient or Pre classical (384 B.C -
1776), classical (1776 - 1871), Neoclassical (1871 - today) and Islamic Economists.
According to Quexbook, 2018 Some of the first truly geographical studies
occurred more than four thousand years ago. The main purpose of these early
investigations was to map features and places observed as explorers travelled to
new lands. At this time, Chinese, Egyptian, and Phoenician civilizations
were beginning to explore the places and spaces within and outside their
homelands. The earliest evidence of such explorations come from the
archaeological discovery of a Babylonian clay tablet map that dates back to 2300
BC.
 According to Quexbook, 2018 People with a certain word choice, syntax,
and pronunciation are revealed to be members of a particular speech
community; a group of people who share social conventions about language
use. Some features are noticeable (salient) and are recognized within the
community as having a particular social meaning. Other features are
sociolinguistic indicators that can be associated with certain social
characteristics. Different speech communities may reflect subsets of the
same language called dialects.

According to Quexbook, 2018 From the late 1950s to mid-1980s, works

in the history of Political Science stand out by their sheer rarity. Earlier
political scientists were rather (though not exceptionally) more
historical in their disciplinary self - understanding.
Wilhelm Wundt opened the first experimental laboratory in
Psychology at the University of Leipzig, Germany. Credited with
establishing psychology as academic discipline, Wundt’s students include
Emil Kraepelin, James McKeen Cattell, and G. Stanley Hall.
 According to Quexbook, 2018 Although sociology has its
roots in the works of philosophers like Plato, Aristotle, and
Confucius, it is a relatively new academic discipline. It
emerged in the early nineteenth century in response to the
challenges of modernity.

According to Quexbook, 2018 The Demographic

Transition Model (DTM) is based on historical population
trends of two demographic characteristics - birth rate and
death rate - to suggest that a country’s total population
growth rate cycles through stages as that country develops
economically.
 Founder of Different Disciplines
1. Anthropology: Edward Burnett Taylor (1832 - 1917)
According to Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004
· English cultural anthropologist
· First to hold the chair in the subject at Oxford University in the UK in 1896
· Coined the term “culture”
 Wrote “Researches into the Early History of Mankind and the Development of
Civilization“
2. History: Herodotus (484 B.C - 425 B.C) According to Mark, 2018

· Greek Historian
· Treated historical subjects as a method of investigation
 Collected historical materials systematically and critically and arranged
them into a historical narrative.
 Wrote “Histories” which is the record of ancient traditions and culture of
Greece, Asia and Africa
3. Economics: Adam Smith (1723 - 1790) According to Butler, 2016
 Founder of Classical School
 Constructed an explanation on how social behavior is regulated
 Saw a world where each person sought their own self - interest but was
constrained by morality, markets and government
 Wrote “Wealth of the Nations” in 1776

4. Geography: Eratosthenes (276 B.C - 194 B.C) According to Russell, 2017

 Greek geographer
 Became chief librarian at the Library of Alexandria
 Accepted the concept that the Earth is round and calculated its
circumference to within 0.5 percent accuracy
 Described the known areas of the world and divided the earth into five
climatic regions
 Prepared the earliest maps of the known world
5. Linguistic: Ferdinand de Saussure (1857 - 1913) According to
Mambrol, 2018
 Swiss linguist
 Posited that linguistic form is arbitrary and therefore that all
languages function in a similar fashion
 Published “Memoire sur le systeme primitifdes voyelles dans
les langues indo-europeenes.”

6. Political Science: Aristotle (384 - 322 B.C) According to

Neonatal, 2016
 Political scientist
 Laid down the foundation of governance and leadership
 He said “man by nature is a political animal”.
 He wrote “The Politics”.
7. Psychology: Wilhelm Wundt (1832 - 1920) According to McLeod, 2008
 German Psychologist
 Opened the Institute for Experimental Psychology at the University of
Leipzig in Germany in 1879
 Trained Psychology students to make observations that were
biased by personal interpretation or previous
experience and used the results to develop a theory of conscious
thought
 Wrote “Principles of Physiological Psychology.”

8. Sociology: Auguste Comte (1798 - 1857) According to Lyudmila,

2000
 French sociologist
 Coined the term “sociology”
 Advocated the application of scientific method to social life and
positivism.
 9. Demography - John Graunt
Table 1: Historical Foundation of Each Discipline
Discipline Historical Foundation
 Traces its roots from natural history which is the
study of plants, animals and humans with reference to their history and
Anthropology native environment.
 The discovery and contact to new civilizations byEuropean explorers
and colonizers led to curiosity and questions of who these people are, who
their ancestors were, how they are related to other people in other places,
what makes them distinct, what similarities they share with the rest,
how they conduct their way of life, and what culture they have in terms of
knowledge they possess, their beliefs, technology that have, etc.
 It was in 19 th century that the discipline began its formative years as a
social science.
 Through the Medieval and Renaissance periods,
History was often studied through a sacred or religious perspective.
History  In the 20 th century, academic historians focused less
 on epic nationalistic narratives, which often tended to glorify
the nation or great men, to more objective and complex
analyses of social and intellectual forces.
 Recently, the field of digital history has begun to
address ways of using computer technology to pose new
questions to historical data and generate digital scholarships.
 It was not considered a separate discipline until the
nineteenth century
 Greeks examined wealth accumulation and inquiries
Economics on whether property should be in the hands of private or
public institutions.
 In medieval times (Middle Ages - 5th to 15th century),
scholars argued that it was a moral obligations of business to
sell goods at a just price.
 Changes in economic thought have always
accompanied changes in the economy, just as changes in
economic thought can propel change in economic policy.
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  People engaged in the study of geography because it
satisfies their natural curiosity about foreign places and different
ways of life.
Geography  The Ancient Greeks made the first contribution to
the subject through measuring the earth using grids of meridians.
 It was the old Babylon who first created linguistics
texts called Sumerian.
 Hindus also created text called Vedas.
Linguistic
 The formal study of language began in India
 It started with the formulation of 3,959 rules of Sanskrit
morphology.
 Early interest in language in the West was a part of
Philosophy, not a grammatical description.
 It was once part of the many related fields of study
like history, philosophy, law and economics.
 The theoretical and practical study of the state and
Political Science the politics began way back to the time of the Ancient Greeks,
about 500 - 300 B.C
 The chieftain who headed a village was chosen from
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 The ranks of leaders with the power to make laws, judge and execute laws.
 The chiefdom become a state
 It has its roots in ancient greek philosophy such as
Psychology Epistemology, metaphysics, religion and oriental philosophy.
 Over the centuries, psychology and physiology
Became increasingly separated resulting to the two conceptions of
psychology that is phenomenological (experimental) and mechanistic
(physiological).
 The intellectual, scientific and industrial revolutions
Sociology Which happened in europe in the middle of the 19th century led to the
development of sociology.
 The intellectual revolution opened new perspective in
Society which offered the people new principles, ideals, and beliefs
changing their outlook in life and the way they perceive themselves, their
environment and relations with fellow men.
 The revolutions in europe brought rapid and radical
Changes which resulted to social problems, issues and social unrest
prompting some individual to direct their attention and investigation of
social phenomena.
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