The Transdisciplinary Status of the Social Sciences

Abstract

The Social Sciences, due to their variety, fragment the perceptions of the social phenomenon. But the ultimate purpose is the same: to explain social phenomena, diagnose the problems they cause and propose solutions. This text intends to show the transdisciplinary path of the Social Sciences; distinguish it from the interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary status and show that the transdisciplinary condition focuses on decision making and problem solving. Decision making can be conceived in the scheme of dilemmas. A methodology is used, of a hermeneutic type, of conceptual critical analysis of the notions that are established and/or constructed in the literature on the subject. The results show transdisciplinarity as a desirable epistemological status, which provides knowledge to act and that such action is done under the guidance of ethical principles and values.