The philosophy of social science is the study of the logic, methods, and foundations of social sciences (psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...
, cultural anthropology
Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans. It is in contrast to social anthropology, which perceives cultural variation as a subset of a posited anthropological constant. The portm ...
, sociology
Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation and ...
, etc...). Philosophers of social science are concerned with the differences and similarities between the social
Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not.
Etymology
The word "social" derives from ...
and the natural sciences, causal relationships between social phenomena, the possible existence of social laws, and the ontological significance of structure and agency.
Auguste Comte and positivism
Comte first described the epistemological perspective of positivism in ''
The Course in Positive Philosophy'', a series of texts published between 1830 and 1842. These texts were followed by the 1848 work, ''
A General View of Positivism'' (published in English in 1865). The first three volumes of the ''Course'' dealt chiefly with the natural sciences already in existence (
geoscience
Earth science or geoscience includes all fields of natural science related to the planet Earth. This is a branch of science dealing with the physical, chemical, and biological complex constitutions and synergistic linkages of Earth's four spher ...
,