释义 |
social science [social a. 9 b.] The scientific study of the structure and functions of society; any discipline that attempts to study human society, either as a whole or in part, in a systematic way. Also attrib.
[1785J. Adams Let. 10 Sept. in Works (1854) IX. 540 The social science will never be much improved, until the people unanimously know and consider themselves as the fountain of power. 1791D.-J. Garat Let. à M. Condorcet 82 Ces vérités..qu'il etoit important de découvrir, de rendre incontestables, sont les premières données de la science sociale, mais elles ne sont point la science.] 1811tr. Destutt de Tracy's Commentary Montesquieu's Spirit of Laws 4, I have no other ambition..than to contribute my effort to the progress of social science, the most important of all to the happiness of man, and that which must necessarily be the last to reach perfection, because it is the product and the result of all the other sciences. 1821J. Bentham Let. 21 Apr. in J. H. Burns J. Bentham & Univ. Coll. (1962) 8 The minds of the ruling few in their growing state should be turned towards the science so aptly stiled by you the social science—that science, in the progress of which the allied powers of tyranny, corruption, and delusion have so long..beheld their final downfall. 1846Lewes Biogr. Hist. Philos. IV. 249 The conception of a social science is due to M. Comte. 1849Southern Lit. Messenger XV. 77/2 On the Importance of the Social Sciences in the present day. 1874Sayce Compar. Philol. vi. 239 Our linguistic researches will be bounded by the limits of social science and social archæology. 1908W. McDougall Introd. Social Psychol. p. vii, I hope that the book may be of service to students of all the social sciences. 1949M. Mead Male & Female 435 The relationship between our social-science skills and our world. 1966G. N. Leech Eng. in Advertising i. 3 Linguistics..has so far been the least influential of the major social sciences. 1969Times 7 Jan. 8/6 Students reading social science were more sceptical than either the arts students or the scientists. 1971New Scientist 18 Mar. 591/1 It seems more difficult to present a programme of viable-looking research in the social sciences than in the natural sciences. 1977A. Giddens Stud. in Social & Polit. Theory ix. 306 Such a view is founded upon an erroneous idea of the relation between lay and social-science concepts. Hence social scientific a., social scientist.
1875R. J. Wright Principia; or, Basis of Social Sci. p. v, As to Spencer; we admit he is the King of the Social Scientists. 1882W. James Let. 2 Nov. (1920) I. 211 As for Prague, veni, vidi, vici. I went there with much trepidation to do my social-scientific duty. 1920J. M. Williams Foundations of Social Sci. p. xiii, The trend of thought of the psychological social scientists signifies an aim to arrive at truer assumptions, and to keep an open mind toward the psychological, as well as the other aspects of those assumptions. 1971Nature 25 June 538/1 Why do social scientists, particularly American social scientists, murder the English language? 1977J. M. Johnson in Douglas & Johnson Existential Sociol. v. 166 Investigations of..social scientific situations. |