Social science can be both science and art. And indeed for policy formulation and implementation, information and knowledge based upon sound theory and research methodology is imperative while experiences and the acumen of management or art of government is required to attain the desired objective. In governance of affairs of state and in running business enterprises or other activities dealing with human beings, social organizations, knowledge on social sciences as "science" and "art" of government, operation of business firms or other social organizations such as hospital, educational institutes, labor unions, civic institutions, etc., invariably would have to be based upon both "science" and "art."
What is social science? Is social science "science" the same of physical science or natural science? Physical or natural science deal with matter trying to investigate its property or chemistry dealing with chemicals and biology dealing with living organisms. The three branches of study of matters, chemicals and living organisms can be dealt with by experiments and theory formulated accordingly. They are manageable. The experiments can be replicable. Theories formulated from the findings can be extrapolated in time and space. This is not the case of what is known as social science. Oftentimes, the findings are results of an esoteric terrain and at a particular point in time. Whatever happened can be argued to be an isolated case which is conditioned by time and space. Hence, every finding is unique. This is a common argument of the opponents against those who tried to make social science "science" a la physical or natural science. This was especially so in the era of "behavioral science revolution" decades ago. The contention between those proponents and opponents of "social science" as science had become polemic and indeed, to led to both academic and emotional academic arguments in many educational institutes. The atmosphere in many regards could be argued to be good for educational discourse. But as in any situation with conclusions remaining pending, it led to tension and at times causing troubles for students who were caught between professors of the two opposite academic stance. But that is now history.
Social science, the conventional term is used here throughout to denote knowledge of human societies of the various places. But whether such knowledge is qualified to deserve the term "science" is what is to be discussed here.
If science is defined as "if A then B and the event occurs repeatedly or replicable, then there is what can be said "partial theory." For instance, in several studies at different times and at different places or “different time and space,” it is found that "those who have attained a high level of education are normally more politically conscious and hence have participated in the political process such as turning out to cast votes or joining political activities than those who are less educated. But such a claim has to take into account the exceptions including those who had experiences in local politics despite the low level of formal education but high on political experiences and knowledge known as political education in lieu of formal education. Some who are economically well off are found to be more politically conscious because they mingled with the elite. There is thus a practice which all researchers have to be aware of. That is when claiming relationship or association between two variable such as education and political consciousness mentioned above, the term ceteris paribus or other things being equal or other variables remaining constant have to immediately follow as a condition. It is to be noted also that "if A then B, can at best be taken as correlation not causation as in the case of physical or natural science because the proven evidence is not precise by identifying the cause and effect. Indeed, in the case of social science, the equation of "independent variable" and "dependent variable" are loosely allowed because by logic and inferences, seemingly the factors can be identified as independent and dependent variable although there is no hard and fast evidence to prove definitively. In research the way to hold other variables constant is to single out the "independent" and "dependent" variables by weeding out other variables which may exert their influence on the two variables. The way to do this is to select people with the same gender, the same income bracket, the same religion, the same age bracket, the same domicile, etc., leaving only the two variables under study to see their correlation.
Social science can claim to be science to the extent of being partial theory and correlation not causation between two variables as shown above. The logical argument is that despite the difficulty in pinning down the cause and effect of event which is ever changing, human behaviors are duplicated as can be seen from being born, raised by parents, attending school, getting employment, getting married and having children. This process will continue from one generation to the other until extra-ordinary events change the pattern of behavior. This is thus a pattern which makes it possible to make a generalization up to a point. Thus defined, social studies may allowably be referred to as "social science.