Scope
How do we decide whether a particular discipline should be regarded as a human science?
Do the human sciences and literature provide different types of knowledge about human existence and behaviour?
Are predictions in the human sciences inevitably unreliable?
What role does mathematics play within the human sciences?
What kinds of explanations do the human sciences offer?
What are the main difficulties that human scientists encounter when trying to provide explanations of human behaviour?
What constitutes “good evidence” in the human sciences?
Is human behaviour too unpredictable to study scientifically?
Does “big data” make the human sciences more “scientific” as an area of knowledge?
Perspectives
To what extent is it legitimate for a researcher to draw on their own experiences as evidence in their investigations in the human sciences?
Is it possible to eliminate the effect of the observer in the pursuit of knowledge in the human sciences?
To what extent are personal factors such as gender and age important in the human sciences?
How might the emotions of the investigator affect the result of an investigation in the human sciences?
In what ways might the beliefs and interests of human scientists influence their conclusions?
Methods and tools
What role do models play in the acquisition of knowledge in the human sciences?
Are observation and experimentation the only two ways in which human scientists produce knowledge?
What assumptions underlie the methods used in the human sciences?
Are the methods used to gain knowledge in the human sciences “scientific”?
How can we know when we have sufficient evidence to accept a claim in the human sciences?
How might the language used in polls and questionnaires to gather information influence the conclusions that are reached
What kinds of explanations do the human sciences offer, and how do these explanations compare with those in other areas of knowledge?
How does the use of numbers, statistics, graphs and other quantitative instruments affect the way knowledge in the human sciences is valued?
Is “big data” changing the methodologies of the human sciences?
Ethics
To what extent are the methods used in the human sciences limited by the ethical considerations involved in studying human beings?
Do researchers have different ethical responsibilities when they are working with human subjects compared to when they are working with animals?
What are the moral implications of possessing knowledge about human behaviour?
Should key events in the historical development of the human sciences always be judged by the standards of their time?
What values determine what counts as legitimate inquiry in the human sciences?