Human Sciences & Knowledge (DP IB Theory of Knowledge): Revision Note

Human sciences & knowledge

What human sciences study 

• The human sciences study human behaviour, decisions, and social patterns, aiming to explain and predict them using evidence

• Human science subjects include:

  • psychology

  • sociology

  • anthropology

  • political science

  • economics

  • human geography

• Human sciences use the scientific method: observation, data collection, validity testing

• Evidence can include:

  • quantitative data, e.g. reaction times, test scores orincome levels

  • qualitative data, e.g. interview transcripts or field notes from observation

• Human science knowledge is often provisional and context-dependent, as explanations may change across cultures or time periods

• Assessing the quality of knowledge in Human Sciences involves evaluating who produced the knowledge and why, and what methods were used

Individual vs group behaviour

• Individual behaviour focuses on choices, beliefs and motivations of a person, while group behaviour focuses on patterns that emerge in groups or societies

  • E.g. an individual behaviour is one person choosing to start exercising regularly after a health scare, while a group behaviour is a rise in gym membership across a city after a public health campaign

• Moving between individual evidence and group claims requires caution

  • A claim about a population cannot be justified by a few personal stories, and a statistical trend for a group does not fully explain individual motives

The problem of complexity

• Human behaviour is complex because it is influenced by many interacting factors, including:

  • culture

  • language

  • incentives

  • personal history

• Because researchers cannot control all of the variables in human behaviour, it is often difficult or unethical to run fully controlled experiments; this means that human sciences may rely more on observational data

  • Conclusions from observational data are usually about patterns and probabilities (i.e., what is likely to happen), rather than certain cause-and-effect claims

• Complexity affects justification by increasing uncertainty and leaving room for multiple reasonable interpretations of the same evidence

Comparison with natural sciences

• Both human and natural sciences use evidence and reasoning, but the human sciences often face greater limits on control and repeatability because of ethical and practical constraints

• In addition to this, human science explanations may need to include meanings, intentions and social context, which the natural sciences are unable to measure

• Human and natural sciences aim to understand different kinds of phenomena, but they use similar methods and standards of evidence. This impacts how we view the knowledge produced in terms of certainty and reliability, e.g.:

  • physicists can test a claim about acceleration by tightly controlling conditions in a lab and repeating the same setup many times, so precise measurement supports strong cause-and-effect justification

  • social scientists may study how unemployment affects crime using real-world statistics and interviews, but they cannot ethically assign people to be unemployed, so the evidence supports “more likely” conclusions rather than fully controlled proof