(i) In terms of students, faculty positions in universities and publications, the Human Sciences have seen a phenomenal expansion in the twentieth century and specially after the Second World War in most countries of the world.
(ii) However, along with expansion and the growing race for publications and promotions amongst social scientists has come a growing tendency for specialisation and jargon which characterises lots of academic writing today.
(iii) In fact, the birth of specialised disciplines from a comprehensive and unspecialized approach to social and philosophical enquiry can be traced back to early nineteenth century in Europe when economics, political science, sociology, anthropology and psychology gradually emerged as distinct disciplines with their own specific methods and delimited concerns.
(iv) Meanwhile, philosophy under the influence of thinkers like A.J. Ayer and Wittgenstein itself shifted focus increasingly from probing broader questions about ethics and politics to a narrower and rigorous concern with clarifying the nature of language and symbols through which issues are posed.
(v) This does not imply that broader questions about causation, human nature and change are not being posed today. Great thinkers like Bertrand Rusell, Noam Chomsky and Louis Althusser continued to write on a broad range of concerns.