Lo natural vs. las ciencias humanas: Mito, metodología y ontología

Abstract

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

References

Haack, Susan. ‘The same, only different’. Journal of Aesthetic Education. Aug. 2002: 34-9.

Haslanger, Sally. ‘Ontology and Social Construction’. Philosophical Topics. 1995: 95-125.