Requesting input from social science buffs!

[Andiferous]

I'm a bit confused too. University departments and course qualifications are a bit different from the general "Bachelor of Arts" or "Bachelor of Science" degrees.

For instance, in my university, physical anthropology was listed as a science course and as such could fulfill a science requirement, while social anthropology was social science course and fulfilled the social studies requirement. Each course program required credits from different departments: like humanities, general studies, social sciences, sciences, etc.

The general makeup of the course program determined whether you would be awarded a BSc or BA.

 

[Zetetic]

*twitches*

Social science is not science

*twitches some more*

Well, at least some of it is. Evolutionary psychology, neuropsychology, computational sociology, sociobiology, evolutionary sociology all seem to rely on scientific observations.

Broadly speaking, the social sciences are meant to scientifically establish patterns of human behavior, to the extent to which it is ethical to do so. We cannot fully and directly test everything, so we have to make do with naturally occurring data and do our best to factor out mitigating factors and draw sensible conclusions.

With new computational approaches, I think that we will see a dramatic increase in rigor in the social sciences, and then there will be little to dispute. Currently the social sciences are, I think, still in their infancy and have not reached the level of sophistication that the older sciences have.