Historical Perspectives of Social Science

• In social sciences, inquiries are classified into nomothetic and ideographic categories.
• Ideographic sciences study unique, unrepeatable events, while nomothetic sciences aim to make generalizations.
• Sociology is classified as a nomothetic science, and history is classified as an ideographic science.
• Historians enhance knowledge of unique past phenomena, while sociologists seek uniformities in social behaviorunder specific conditions.
• Data from history is increasingly used by sociologists, indicating the assimilative quality of sociological work.
• Historians, philosophers, social psychiatrists, literary men, and social scientists use the historical approach to view society as a dynamic organism undergoing continuous change and transformation.
• Social scientists focus on the process of social change since all social groups, institutions, and personalities undergo change.
• Marx employed the historical method with dialectical materialism to understand societal development, believing material conditions shape societal evolution.
• Marx’s dialectical sequence of societal development: primitive communism, slavery, feudalism, capitalism, socialism.
• Dialectical materialism serves as a sociological tool for analyzing societal development in historical context.
• Max Weber criticized Marxist historical views, rejecting the materialist conception of history as a formula for explaining historical reality.
• Weber’s historical approach is demonstrated in his studies of capitalism, modern bureaucracy, and the economic influence of world religions.
• Weber’s methodology involves studying particular historical changes in social structures and comparing them with changes in other societies.
• Both causal explanations and historical interpretations are included in social explanations.
• Weber’s work implies that general sociological propositions refer to trends, while their application to specific societies requires historical study.
• A notable example of Weber’s approach is his analysis in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, where he connects the rise of capitalism in Europe to the influence of Calvinist ethics.

Sources of Historical Data

• P.V. Young (1973) describes sources of historical data in her book Scientific Social Surveys and Research.
• Social scientists generally use three main sources of historical information:
  1. Documents and various historical sources accessible to the historian.
  2. Materials from cultural history and analytical history.
  3. Personal sources from authentic observers and witnesses.
• The use of these sources depends on the discretion of the student, their interests, the scope of their study, and the availability of sources.
• Historical data have limitations, mainly because historians cannot capture all events within the available time and space during the writing of history.
• Personal biases and private interpretations can unintentionally affect the writing of history, even with honest attempts to select relevant facts.
• A current controversy in Indian history writing concerns medieval Indian history, especially the works of D.D. Kosambi and Romila Thapar, whose writings reflect the historical development of Indian society.

Damodar Dharmanand Kosambi: Biography and Contribution towards Sociology

Methodology and Techniques

• Damodar Dharmanand Kosambi (1907-1966) is best known as a mathematician but has a versatile, Renaissancequality.
• His formula for chromosome distance is central in classical genetics.
• His work on coins makes numismatics of hoards an exact science.
• He contributed to archaeology with an unrivaled collection of microliths, the discovery of a Brahmi inscription at Karle, and numerous megaliths with rock engravings.
• His editions of Bhrtrihari’s poetry and the oldest known Sanskrit anthology are landmarks in Indian text-criticism.
• Kosambi introduced a fundamentally new approach to the study of Indian history, using scientific methodology and modern techniques of interpretation, selection, and analysis of basic problems.
• His work stands out for its range of new material, including original discoveries of megaliths, microliths, rustic superstition, and peasant customs.
• He emphasizes gaining insight into the past by examining monuments, customs, and records.
• Kosambi makes impressive use of scientific methods across fields like archaeology, ethnography, and philology.