Introduction
Social sciences are usually juxtaposed and compared with natural sciences in their practical applicability, and the former almost certainly lose as a result of such contrasting. Indeed, findings in physics, biology, and chemistry, for instance, find implications in the ‘real world’ much faster and seemingly more often. However, it can be argued that social sciences also have significant practical value and impact on society’s development.
Social Sciences’ Impact on Society’s Development
In the beginning, it is necessary to discuss the reasons why social sciences are sometimes viewed as impractical. Firstly, such an attitude can be explained due to methodological restrictions. Indeed, unlike natural sciences, where all the phenomena and problems can be measured mathematically, social studies deal with people’s behaviors and attitudes and philosophical problems that often cannot be easily presented with numbers. As a result, while the findings in the former sphere can be replicated several times, social scientists usually fail to receive similar results (Amrhein et al., 2019). Such a situation, in turn, leads to long-lasting arguments and discussions that may seem to be useless conversations, especially to non-professionals. Additionally, while natural sciences deal with the observable world, social sciences often examine abstract categories. As such, it is harder to find a practical implication for the latter knowledge, but it does not imply its lack of value.
Finally, the claim that social sciences do not have a practical value is simply wrong as it does not consider numerous findings in this sphere. For instance, psychologists develop theories that intend to understand the nature of human beings and, based on the elaborate practical methods that help maintain an individual’s mental well-being. On the other hand, sociologists examine people’s behavior in groups and societies’ cultural prejudices, which allow understanding, predicting, and influencing the masses in various situations. Moreover, enlightenment philosophers developed the methods that promoted the principles of a rational approach to research and to life in general. In other words, without philosophy, there would not be natural sciences as people know them today.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is necessary to mention that the examples discussed above represent only a small percentage of the practical knowledge that appeared due to the existence of social sciences. There are many more research findings and discussions that have been tremendously influencing the way people live and operate in this world. Yet, because of certain factors mentioned earlier, sciences are sometimes wrongly viewed as ‘just a bunch of conversations’.
Reference
Amrhein, V., Trafimow, D., & Greenland, S. (2019). Inferential statistics as descriptive statistics: There is no replication crisis if we don’t expect replication. The American Statistician, 73(1), 262-270.