The Natural vs. Human Sciences: Myth, Methodology, and Ontology
(2013) In Discusiones Filosóficas 22(1). p.13-29- Abstract
- I argue that the human sciences (i.e. humanities, social- and behavioural sciences) should not try to imitate the methodology of the natural sciences. The human sciences study meaningful phenomena whose nature is decisively different from the merely physical phenomena studied by the natural sciences, and whose study therefore require different methods; meaningful phenomena do not obviously obey natural laws while the merely physical necessarily does. This is not to say that the human sciences do not study an objective reality about which we cannot have genuine knowledge. The notion of objective reality is discussed, and it is suggested that social constructions can be understood as objectively real entities.
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/4276820
- author
- Ingthorsson, Rögnvaldur LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2013
- type
- Contribution to specialist publication or newspaper
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- philosophy, human science, methodology, natural science, philosophy of science, objectivity, objective reality, social constructions
- categories
- Popular Science
- in
- Discusiones Filosóficas
- volume
- 22
- issue
- 1
- pages
- 13 - 29
- publisher
- Universidad de Caldas
- ISSN
- 0124-6127
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- ccbd7fcf-c6e0-4960-ae66-aa4796ddf0cc (old id 4276820)
- alternative location
- http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?pid=S0124-61272013000100003&script=sci_arttext
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-04 09:21:51
- date last changed
- 2018-11-21 20:52:35
@misc{ccbd7fcf-c6e0-4960-ae66-aa4796ddf0cc,
abstract = {{I argue that the human sciences (i.e. humanities, social- and behavioural sciences) should not try to imitate the methodology of the natural sciences. The human sciences study meaningful phenomena whose nature is decisively different from the merely physical phenomena studied by the natural sciences, and whose study therefore require different methods; meaningful phenomena do not obviously obey natural laws while the merely physical necessarily does. This is not to say that the human sciences do not study an objective reality about which we cannot have genuine knowledge. The notion of objective reality is discussed, and it is suggested that social constructions can be understood as objectively real entities.}},
author = {{Ingthorsson, Rögnvaldur}},
issn = {{0124-6127}},
keywords = {{philosophy; human science; methodology; natural science; philosophy of science; objectivity; objective reality; social constructions}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{1}},
pages = {{13--29}},
publisher = {{Universidad de Caldas}},
series = {{Discusiones Filosóficas}},
title = {{The Natural vs. Human Sciences: Myth, Methodology, and Ontology}},
url = {{http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?pid=S0124-61272013000100003&script=sci_arttext}},
volume = {{22}},
year = {{2013}},
}