What is It
Just like an identical twin, the different disciplines of social science have similarities despite of their
differences.
According to Quexbook, 2018 Anthropology traces its roots to Ancient Greek historical and philosophical
writings about human nature and the organization of human society.
According to Quexbook, 2018 Modern Economics, which is still being studied today, is the result of the
efforts of ancient or Pre classical (384 B.C – 1776), classical (1776 – 1871), Neoclassical (1871 – today)
and Islamic Economists.
According to Quexbook, 2018 Some of the first truly geographical studies occurred more than four
thousand years ago. The main purpose of these early investigations was to map features and places
observed as explorers travelled to new lands. At this time, Chinese, Egyptian, and Phoenician
civilizations were beginning to explore the places and spaces within and outside their homelands. The
earliest evidence of such explorations come from the archaeological discovery of a Babylonian clay
tablet map that dates back to 2300 BC.
According to Quexbook, 2018 People with a certain word choice, syntax, and pronunciation are revealed
to be members of a particular language use community; a group of people who share social conventions
about speech. Some features are noticeable (salient) and are recognized within the community as
having a particular social meaning. Other features are sociolinguistic indicators that can be associated
with certain social characteristics. Different speech communities may reflect subsets of the same
language called dialects.
According to Quexbook, 2018 From the late 1950s to mid-1980s, works in the history of Political Science
stand out by their sheer rarity. Earlier political scientists were rather (though not exceptionally)
historical in their disciplinary self-understanding. Wilhelm Wundt opened the first experimental
laboratory in Psychology at the University of Leipzig, Germany. Credited with establishing psychology as
academic discipline, Wundt’s students include Emil Kraepelin, James McKeen Cattell, and G. Stanley Hall.
According to Quexbook, 2018 Although sociology has its roots in the works of philosophers like Plato,
Aristotle, and Confucius, it is a relatively new academic discipline. It emerged in the early nineteenth
century in response to the challenges of modernity.
According to Quexbook, 2018 The Demographic Transition Model (DTM) is based on historical
population trends of two demographic characteristics – birth rate and death rate - to suggest that a
country's total population growth rate cycles through stages as that country develops economically.
Founder of Different Disciplines
1. Anthropology: Edward Burnett Taylor (1832 - 1917)
–According to Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004
- English cultural anthropologist
- First to hold the chair in the subject at Oxford University in the UK in 1896
- Coined the term "culture"
- Wrote "Researches into the Early History of Mankind and the Development of Civilization"
2. History: Herodotus (484 B.C - 425 B.C) According to Mark, 2018
- Greek Historian
- Treated historical subjects as a method of investigation
- Collected historical materials systematically and critically and arranged them into a historical narrative.
- Wrote "Histories" which is the record of ancient traditions and culture of Greece, Asia and Africa
3. Economics: Adam Smith (1723 - 1790) According to Butler, 2016
- Founder of Classical School
- Constructed an explanation on how social behavior is regulated
- Saw a world where each person sought their own self - interest but was constrained by morality,
markets and government
- Wrote "Wealth of the Nations" in 1776
4. Geography: Eratosthenes (276 B.C - 194 B.C) According to Russell, 2017
- Greek geographer
- Became chief librarian at the Library of Alexandria
- Accepted the concept that the Earth is round and calculated its circumference to within 0.5 percent
accuracy
- Described the known areas of the world and divided the earth into five climatic regions
- Prepared the earliest maps of the known world
5. Linguistic: Ferdinand de Saussure (1857 - 1913) According to Mambról, 2018
- Swiss linguist
- Posied that linguistic form is arbitrary and therefore that all languages function in a similar fashion
- Published "Memoire sur le systeme primitifdes voyelles dans les langues indo-europeenes."