Social Sciences: Characteristics of the Subject, Attitude to Sociology

The article discusses the situation in the methodology of social sciences. There were problems with defining the subject of these sciences and distinguishing them from sociology. While some sociologists defend the specifics of sociology, others, for example, Z. Bauman, argue that "sociology is a residual discipline, which is limited by what remains outside the field of view of other social disciplines." The author, following Bauman, separates and connects sociology with the social sciences as follows: in the social sciences, the processes and interactions of people are considered as factors and anthropological conditions of the corresponding deindividual structures and processes (economic, political, legal, institutional, etc.). Answering the question about the nature of the subject of social sciences, the author argues that social sciences study, on the one hand, associations and populations of people, on the other hand, processes and patterns of their changes, on the third hand, social actions under the influence of which these changes occur. Sociology constructs its ideal objects on the assumption that the main thing in this reality are people and their relationships. Other social disciplines consider people as one of the factors and conditions, and distinguish and study various deindividual processes and structures as the main ones. These provisions are explained within the framework of methodological discourse and illustrated by the material of cultural history.

sociology, social sciences, sociality, object, mind, change, factors, conditions, nature, society