I agree about the controlled experiment aspect, but before we arrive at that stage social description allows us to explore a range of possible theories. In any

I agree about the controlled experiment aspect, but before we arrive at that stage social description allows us to explore a range of possible theories. In any case, the language example used here was more to demonstrate the historic and perceptual differences as to what amounts to science, and that for some social science is not necessarily an oxymoron. Edit: wissenschaft and wetenschap are furthermore direct translations, while natural philopsophy moreso indicates a field or discipline (akin to 'Naturphilosophie' or 'wijsbegeerte'). While this can be regarded as 'just semantics', the categories are subtly different enough, at least to a second-language speaker.