For many millennia, people have been trying to scrutinize and understand the human society and the natural world through many different disciplines and social sciences such as psychology, anthropology, history, economics, linguistics, sociology, etc. This is through studying, for example, important achievements of a particular society or culture through material artefacts such as hunting or cooking tools and other technology and also through immaterial artefacts like social systems, language, laws, governments, customs, etc. For a very long period of time, countless knowledge have been produced about how human society functions and why it behaves as such, in relation to its existing milieu. Fortunately, this knowledge has been so useful in answering many of our challenging questions as complex social species.
Through studying history, especially of many different contexts, we humans can also draw lessons for us to evolve and advance in the aspect of, for example, ethics, moral disposition, and even in technology so that our future species will have a quality of existence less of suffering and hardship. It is a way to revisit a particular time and place to have another contemplative look; to use the images of the past, so to speak, for the benefit of the coming generations. Without looking back at history, society cannot progress into the future as it cannot gain wider and deeper understanding of its own nature, competences, cultural temperament, and many other essential social aspects. Understanding our complexities will always come with understanding our story, individually and collectively.
The role of psychology in learning about individuals and society is also very crucial. It is an efficient method of studying our rational activity; how we respond to certain situations. Psychology gives us vital information about a specific individual in connection to his social environment and vice versa. However, just like any other fields, psychology is far from being perfect when it comes to answering other problems and questions our species is having. But, if this tool is being used properly, we can effectively guide our society into a more advanced and well-thought destination. This should be the case and this social tool should be developed and run by good hands. All throughout history, psychology has helped our species know how its own brain functions and reacts to its environment and to stimulus. However, it took a little while for our species to come up with this kind of knowledge.
There are other important social sciences we should be developing and directed into more grassroots side so that we humans can collectively achieve higher state or version as a society. Some examples of these are anthropology (linguistic and cultural), communication, economics, social works, and psychology. These are all necessary components we should have for deeply understanding human nature and human society. If we are to improve our condition and survive in this current materialistic and excessively commercialized world, we must develop more approaches for these social sciences.
References:
- Postgraduate Programs in Social Sciences
- The Science of Sociology
- Featured Photo: vox.com/2015/4/20/8455399/three-laws-social-science
