the failure of social science

The Thesis
Science has progressed by providing powerful predictions and explanations about how the world works. Natural science has experienced a sustained growth of knowledge, which has led to the uncovering of laws that allow human beings to control or manipulate various aspects of the world around us. A sustained growth of knowledge and the discovery of useful laws are absent from social science. The social sciences fail to live up to the success of the natural sciences.
The First Objection to the Thesis
One reason that social science appears to be a failure in comparison to natural science is that human beings are difficult and complex subjects to study. The study of human beings raises many ethical questions. Such as, how far scientist should push the limits of morality in order to solve important questions about human behavior. Natural science is spared this dilemma. The complexity of human behavior also makes it difficult to discover scientific laws and gener...