How to Read Social Science?

The concept and terminology of the social sciences pervade almost everything we read today.

It is customary in social science to read several books about a subject rather than one book for its own sake. Thus you need to adopt the syntopical reading in doing this.

Digest

1. The organization of social power, the kinds of property and ownership, and the distribution of wealth are variously described, deplored, or lauded in novels, plays, stories, moving pictures, television shows.

Laud: praise, glorify or honor

2. We hear of the aberrant society, the abortive society, the acquiescent society, the acquisitive society, the affluent society, and we can continue on through the alphabet until we arrive at the zymotic society, which is one that is in a continuous state of ferment, not unlike our own.

aberrant: markedly different from an accepted norm  脱离常轨的

abortive: failing to accomplish an intended result 失败的，没有结果的

acquiescent: willing to carry out the orders or wishes of another without protest 顺从的

acquisitive: eager to acquire and possess things especially material possessions or ideas 贪得无厌的

Social Science and the relevant notions

Anthropology, economics, politics, and sociology generally consist the Social Science department. And the systematic study of those areas can be made within the university.

Psychology & Social science

2 opinions:

Psychology does not belong to social science, since it concerns individual and personal characteristics but social science focuses on cultural, institutional and environmental factors.

Psychology is one social science because the inseparability of the individual from his social environment.

Behavioral science & Social Science

It concludes sociology, anthropology, and the behavioral aspects of biology, economics, geography, law, psychology and psychiatry, and political science.

History & Social Science

It is not a science in the sense that of itself it yields systematic knowledge of patterns or laws of behavior and development.

The Ease and Difficulties in Apprehension

Ease:

Readers are familiar with social science on its data, narrative exposition and the jargon. Therefore, readers are comparatively easy to understand social science literature.

Besides the words "social" "society" are chameleon-like.

Difficulties:

1. Readers may feel the opinions stated by the author are different from theirs and face the difficulties in questioning it.

2. The very familiarity of the terms and propositions in social science writing is also an obstacle

3. Stipulation of usage was not as common in social science. Because it is harder to define certain things.

4. Social science is a mixed literature of science, philosophy, and history, often with some fiction thrown in for good measure.

Summary

Everyone lives in a society whether it is a melting pot like Beijing or New York or an isolated rural countryside. I thought society is the invisible box containing the physical nature, human beings, the cultural and so on. Particularly reading the society we have been living seems a little bit useless. In most times, human beings ignore and think little of it. But society is the moment we are spending, the place we are living, the matters we are experiencing. We will be apparently shocked by society when a hot "topic" triggers our attention. The topic is the society we have ignored. Noticing, making a study, analyzing and then making the public read it is the job that most social scientists  have been doing. We, every citizen, need to cherish and participate in the study and analyses of the society. After all, we are a part of the society.