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No one would deny the magnitude of the impact of the Darwinian theory on the social sciences. The biological evolution of man is, as ever, of concern to physical anthropologists. Social evolution in some sense of the term concerns many archaeologists, but it is rarely that one meets either a social anthropologist or sociologist who is concerned with evolutionary questions, and it is even true that the majority of soda! anthropologists and sociologists regard such questions as, at best, irrelevant, and, at worst, as meaningless. Without biologist Charles Darwin and the almost universal influence of his theories, there would have been no revival of sociological thought such as took place in the latter half of the nineteenth century despite the independent labours of researchers in France and England. The hope that some simple over-all scheme of social evolution would be found proved fallacious, and perhaps technology alone provides a case of genuine evolution which is in any sense universal. The methods of social investigation from field work in anthropology to sample surveys in sociology and the growth of knowledge and theory were re-animated by Darwinian ambitions and influences.

The article comments on the present situation and development in the social sciences in Great Britain. The social sciences in general, and in specifically, had a long pre-history. An intelligent observer in the year 1800 would not have had a word for sociology, and would not have known the phrase social science. Economics, and to a lesser degree politics, were firmly established in the universities before 1939. The importance of politics in the conduct of administration and the making of policy was recognized. The experience of economic depression was productive of a diffuse belief in planning which resulted in a new readiness of mind to accept social research. In 1945 this resulted in a growth of demand for social science education and information. All the social sciences grew steadily in the following years. Partly through the encouragement of UNESCO, national associations came into existence in such fields as politics and sociology. They were no novelty in economics. Social administration as a subject of study advanced with the growth of a welfare state. But the real revolution was to follow, and it still continues.

This article discusses the concepts of cybernetics and social science. Cybernetics is the analytic study of the isomorphisms of communication structure in mechanisms, organisms and societies. On the other hand, the development of science as a social enterprise is a function of the growth of certain new kinds of communication and their formalization into patterns of behaviour. The immediate origin of cybernetics is to be found in the development of calculating machines, of guided missiles and of the anatomy and physiology of the brain. The problems of the sociology of scientific organization are intrinsically interesting and of contemporary concern. One of the major problems of sociology is the difficulty of knowing when a prediction is fulfilled or falsified. This paper will also deal on the status and sociological relevance of cybernetics itself. There is, however, a fundamental weakness in the whole of the cybernetic analysis of purpose. Purposive behaviour in cybernetics is a consequence of an overt change in the milieu. There may be no new science of cybernetics but there is at least a stimulus for a large number of already existing disciplines.