Historical developments in

social science
Prepared by,
Darsana M Warrier
b.Ed social science,2015-2017
UCTE, MUVATTTUPUZHA

Common Features of Greek-Roman

Historical writing
Formulated history as a separate subject
Eye witness
Not possible to go beyond acertain limit
in the past
Humanism
Substantialism
They pre-conceived the notion of man
is essentially a rational animal
Concept of universal history
Cyclic view of history

Herodotus(484-430 B.C.)and
Thucidydes(460-396 B.C)
Herodotus was a famous Greek historian
Rationalismhumanism,scientific etc can be
seen in his writings
Major work-The Histories
Thucidydes was known as the father of
scientific history
He brought constructive reasoning in
historical writings
Major work-History of the Peloponnesian
war

Hellenestic And Roman periods

Greek developmental age was known as
Hellenestic Period
The main Historian of this period was
Pollybius
Titus Livy(59 B.C.-A.D. 17) and Cornelius
Tacitus(A.D.55-120) were the major roman
historians
Major work of Livy was History of Rome
Major works of Tacitus was Life of
Agricola,Dialogues on Oraters,Annale etc

Medieval Period
Commonly known as Dark Age.
In Medieval nEurope, art,science,literature and
philosophy bound up with religion.
Text were written in greek and latin as these
languages were considered elite an scholarly
The main Christian historian of this period was St.
Augustine.His major work was The City of God.
Al-Biruni (a.d. 973-1048) was a famous arab
historian.
Known as the Father of Indology
Major work was Tarikh-ul-Hind

Renaissance
By the dawn of the 13th C, Scholars gave
importance to man and his life in
art,science,literature and philosophy.
This vision is known as Humanism
It promoted Reasoning and Enquiry
A new awakening in all sphers of human life is
known as Renaissance.
Petrarch was known as the Father of Renaissance
The renaissance in the field of science led to the
invention of new machines.It ushered in the
Industrial Revolution

Enlightment Period
This period gave importance to Rational Thinking
French philosopher Auguste Comte
(1795-1857) was the
former thinker of Positivism
Major works- The course of Positive Philosophy, The system of
positivistic policy

Hegel- Founder of Romantic Idealism

Major works- Lectures on the philosophy of history,The science of
logic, Encyclopaedia of philosophy etc.

Karl Marx- Father of scientific socialism

Major works-Das capital,Communist Manifesto etc.
According to him,Primitive,Slave,Feudal,Capitalist,Socialist
are the five modes of production
He coined the term Historical Materialism

Modern Period
Revival of Greeco-Roman Classics
Main historian of this age was Niccolo
Machiavelli
Major works-The Prince,History of Florence
Francis Bacon called this age as The
Development of Scientific Knowledge
In 1929, A Historical journal named Annales De
History Economic Social was published.This was
the beginning of Annales School.
Renaissance,Scientific Revolution etc brought
rapid changes in the field of Social science

 The main changes were,

Questioning,Prioritisation of
individualism,freedom and formal eqality,faith
in social,scientific and technological
progress,human perfectability,rationalisation
and professionalisation, industrialisation etc.
Formal establishment of social science was
done
The word social science first established in
1824 by William Thompson

Modern Trends
The term Coselience was coined by
William Whewell
Its meaning is Jumping together of
knowledge
It refers to the principle that
evidence from independent,unrelated sources can converge to
strong conclusions

Social Science Branches

SOCIAL SCIENCE