Chapter-1 Historical Background of Social Sciences CHAPTER – 1 Historical Background of Social Science 1.1 Introduction- The focus of the social sciences is on the study of the following – 1. Change in human relationship and reinterpretation between the present and past events. 2. Human activities and spatial distributions an interaction of culture, biological and physical elements. 3. Basic social systems, institutions and recesses. 4. Relationships between individual and institutions; and among political economic and social institutions. 5. The nature of societies and authors; and the interactions of people with each other and also their social and physical environment. 1.2 Origin of the term social science - The term social science does no fit easily in the universe of scholarship, especially not in English, sciences and socials are somewhat happier expressions ,though they too have suffered from being interpreted either too widely or to narrowly. Frequently social science is meant to define either sociology or synthetic social theory only. Everywhere the implied analogy to the natural sciences has been contested. In 1982 the British Government challenged the name of the publicly financed social science research council; arguing “inter–alia” that “social studies” would be more appropriate description for discipline of scholarship which can not justly claim to be scientific. Social science can be defined as study of men living in society. It was said that man is a political animal. This observation was broadened 1