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> It might just be that the social sciences and medicine are really hard As one field often builds upon another, the so-called soft/social sciences could also
by Chris2048 6y ago
> It might just be that the social sciences and medicine are really hard
As one field often builds upon another, the so-called soft/social sciences could also be called Higher/high-order sciences; and the complexity progression might not be linear, since at the high-level these topics tend to merge such that they are no longer layers but rather aspects of the same societal mega-graph e.g. economics is the study societal economy, political science is the study societal politics etc, all of which are part of the same system, and hence inter-react, in the same way a study of volcanic activity, the tides, the magnetic field, the atmosphere, weather and the terrestrial water table/system are all inter-related topics of the same planetary model (I expect all these things to become distinct topics of study too, at a greater scale if they aren't already).
Another consideration; Natural versus "human" sciences - any system that involves humans (any study of an aspect of human society) differs from the study of natural processes.
1) the scientists, or scientific institution is a part of society,
2) humans can react to scientific investigation and inquiry - a natural process doesn't do PR, no matter how strange the quantum is.
3) humans culture and behaviour is both complex, and changes over time in a way e.g. chemistry, does not.
- analog31 6y agoPossibly the biggest issue is ethics. Speaking as a physicist, we can perform experiments on atoms, that would hopefully be unthinkable on humans. Even psychology gets more results if ethics are overlooked, e.g., in areas such as advertising and interrogation.
- jrumbut 6y agoI think you're right, and I would go further and say that it becomes even more complicated because the higher order fields are often as old or older than the foundational ones. We created frameworks for understanding political science and the humanities, still relevant today, millenia before any real neuroscience occurred.
- Chris2048 6y agoIt's hard to tell, for example is alchemy ancient chemistry, or something else? It is true though that certain topics have been around so long that the study of X is itself a study.