Bible criticism and social science

Richard H. Popkin

pp. 339-360

in: Robert S. Cohen, Mark W. Wartofsky (eds), Methodological and historical essays in the natural and social sciences, Berlin, Springer, 1974

Abstract

In this paper I will deal with the crucial role played by the Bible critics of the 17th century in providing some of the framework in which modern social science developed. Besides providing some of the methodology of the social science, in terms of the research approaches of the Bible critics, and posing some of the basic problems in the area,¹ the Bible critics contributed greatly to forming the ideology of what Hume called "the science of man". It is this latter contribution that I shall treat here. In so doing, I certainly do not wish to claim that there were not other important streams of influence, such as the theories of the dynamics of man and society presented by Machiavelli and Hobbes.

Cited authors

Hume David