SciELO - Scientific Electronic Library Online

 
vol.14 issue22Interpreting the wave function - what are electrons? And how do they move?Hegel's anti-capitalist state author indexsubject indexarticles search
Home Pagealphabetic serial listing  

Services on Demand

Journal

Article

Indicators

Related links

  • On index processCited by Google
  • Have no similar articlesSimilars in SciELO
  • On index processSimilars in Google

Share


Discusiones Filosóficas

Print version ISSN 0124-6127

Abstract

INGTHORSSON, Rögnvaldur D.. The natural vs. The human sciences:: myth, methodology and ontology. discus.filos [online]. 2013, vol.14, n.22, pp.25-41. ISSN 0124-6127.

I argue that the human sciences (i.e. humanities, social - and behavioural sciences) should not try to imitate the methodology of the natural sciences. The human sciences study meaningful phenomena whose nature is decisively different from the merely physical phenomena studied by the natural sciences, and whose study therefore require different methods; meaningful phenomena do not obviously obey natural laws while the merely physical necessarily does. This is not to say that the human sciences do not study an objective reality about which we cannot have genuine knowledge. The notion of objective reality is discussed, and it is suggested that social constructions can be understood as objectively real entities.

Keywords : human science; methodology; natural science; philosophy of science; objective; objective reality; social constructions.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in English     · English ( pdf )