1 Dialectical Relationship between History and Other elements of Social Science
By: Saefur Rochmat
Abstract:
The development of sciences and technology at modern era does not guarantee the problems of human being be resolved completely. It has also had negative impacts such
as the disparities of the have and the have not, of the rich country and poor country; colonialismimperialism; world wars; and so on. These negative impacts, of course,
contradict with the mission of philosophy as the root of all sciences which pretends to teach man with wisdom. They are as a result of specialization of sciences which neglect
their relationship with philosophy. This article also argues that all sciences should develop dialectical relationship with each other.
Key words: philosophy, history, social sciences, integral approach, multi-dimensional approach.
A. Introduction
All sciences root in philosophy. It is not surprising that philosophy is meant wisdom. It implies that all sciences aim to search for the truth by which people are able to
deal with the problems wisely. Wisdom is the combination of knowledge and experience, besides a brave to implement the knowledge in the real living situation. The
characteristics of the wisdom are to behave in justice, to treat the problems with proportional, to be patient, besides to persist to the principles of life. That is why
universities of the West confer the highest academic status with the title of ‘Philosophy
Doctor’ a part of its discipline. By conferring lecturer with the quality of philosophy, it hopes that heshe will be able to develop wisdom in arranging this worldly life Maarif,
2005a: 3.
This early initiative is very ideal, a part of the fact that now the West become more secular in living so that the holder of Ph. D is no more than white collar worker
minus wisdom. It is as a result of specialization of sciences which neglect philosophy as the source of them. Scholars who enjoy doing a research on his specialization without
2 any will to relate it to the widely worldly affairs, as if they live in small cage, although it
is nice but it is nothing worth for this widely worldly living of without limit Maarif, 2005b: 5.
Scholar is not properly to swim just within his small pond of his specialization. He should understand principles of other disciplines so that he is able to handle the
complex problems of living successfully or in other words, he is able to find out the wisdom. It is difficult to be wise man if scholars of any discipline are reluctant ly to know
philosophy, religion, and social science. At the peak time of Islamic civilization, the universities required the student of exact sciences should pass the examination of social
science at their first year. Philosophy as the root of all sciences should be a returning point for the sciences
in order not to get lost in their mission to search for the truth by which man becomes wise. Considering philosophy used logical procedures by a means of reason, it just
produces utopia truths an ideal so that we can not find them in real living in this world. However, philosophy is very important as a source for comparing with the realities so
that we know how far our efforts have been closed to the ideality. In converse, to fulfill the idealities of the goals we should take into considerations the empirical situation of the
targets. By so doing we understand the strong and the weak points of the real situation of the targets and then, we arrange the necessary activities to improve them, of course by
considering the quality of the manpower and other resources. We should also consider in our mind the barriers for improvement and then how strong the target are able to support
this improvement programs. By so doing we try to control the courses of improvement programs so that it does not appear violence or chaotic situation while we are
implementing the goodness the truth.
B. History: A source of Empirical Truth
