Think of social science as the exploration of that terrain. Just like Burke and Wills who had a depot at the Dig Tree on Cooper Creek, to which they returned in 1861, exhausted, only to perish. In this talk I will examine both the Dig Trees that provide false security for the social sciences in the wilderness between the humanities and science, as well as the nature of the terrain itself. This will provide a context for a discussion of the ideas emerging from the theory of complex adaptive systems and the socioeconomic and biophysical problems of regional sustainability. It was to guide them to some buried supplies left by their support party who, sadly, had given up hope and departed only hours before.
Science is like that.
Or at least, the relations between science and the humanities are. On the far shore, the fatal shore perhaps, lie the humanities whose settlements are not so well connected. Here we find many city states, an Athens, a Florence or two, but also some Port Essingtons. There are also expeditions exploring across this country from the science shore, for exploration is another key feature of science. They are usually called social science, since they try to apply scientific ideas to the phenomenon of man.