Among the disciplines that formed the social sciences, two contrary, but powerful tendencies at first dominated them,
(i) The first was the drive towards unification that is towards a single, master social science. Some thinkers felt that it was better to have a single science of society [that would take its place in the hierarchy of sciences] than to have a plurality of social sciences.
In the 1820s itself Auguste Comte wrote calling for a new science, the one to study man as a social animal. Comte, Spencer, Marx, Bentham and many others to join them, saw the study of society as a unified enterprise. Since society is an indivisible thing, the study of society must be a unified one. This was their basic belief.
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(ii) The second tendency was towards specialisation of individual social sciences. It was this opposite tendency of specialisation or differentiation that won out. In spite of the dreams of Comte, Spencer, Marx and others, there were to be found at the end of the 19th century not one, but several distinct, competitive social sciences.
Development of colleges and universities throughout Europe and America very strongly supported this process. These formal educational institutions in fact, started the “age of specialisation”.
This began first in Germany and later on spread to England, America, France and other countries. The philosophy of specialisation became so fascinating that no major field of study could escape the lure of specialisation.