Conflicts in Social Science12.pdf

CONFLICTS IN SOCIAL
SCIENCE
Edited by Anton van Harskamp

CONFLICTS IN SOCIAL SCIENCE
Anton van Harskamp
What is the use of social science? An apparently naïve answer is that social
science can contribute to the betterment of society: its systematically verified
truth may provide the key to the settlement of disruptive conflicts. To take
two random examples: by gaining insight into the cycle of debt and poverty
in the Third World, social science is supposed to do its part in helping to find
solutions for the conflicts in the Third World; by investigating the causes of
child abuse in the nuclear family, it is supposed to do the same in numerous
families. The same applies to many more areas of antagonism and conflict.
At any rate, this is what many students expect who go to university or college
to study social science (Webb 1995:156ff.).