snitsnat wrote:
>
>
> hmmmm. i detect some of the scientists disrespect for the humanities coming
> out here -- if you understand , this is, that natural scientists often
> think that social sciences are 'merely' humanities. LOL
I keep trying to reduce the triad of divisions (natural science, social science, humanities) to a duality: natural science and [I don't have a label: "History" is misleading because, e.g., geology and biology both have large historical elements, but it is the best I can come up with for a label.] Try "systematic study of human activity," which would include what we call "social science" and "humanities." It seems to me that the division in to sociology, polisci, and econ is really arbitrary, and in fact is an artifact of specifically capitalist social relations.
>[clip]
> p.s. I sometimes denigrate the "not really" sciences too. can't help it,
> it's ingrained in our culture to do so.
Try this (very tentative on my part): the deification of "hard sciences" and the contempt for the study of human social relations as not "really science" is grounded in the Idea of Progress, which itself was partly grounded in the apparently obvious fact of the progress of technology?????
Carrol