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?

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