Semiotic, The Socio-Humanistic Sciences, and the Unity of Science

Abstract

The major interest and the significant results of the unity of science movement have so far centered in logic, mathematics, and the physical sciences. A number of inquiries from various quarters make insistent the question as to what disposal the movement is to make of that conglomeration of psychological, social, and humanistic studies which the Germans have called the Geisteswissenschaften, and which will here be referred to as the socio-humanistic sciences. These inquiries must be met without evasion. It is a frequent claim that the socio-humanistic sciences are concerned basically with meaning and value, and that these cannot be known by the methods operative in the natural sciences, but must be known by a special method of insight. The unity of science movement will remain a torso — though a significant torso — if it cannot give a full and convincing account of the whole domain of human cultural activities.