Reading Social Science
Reading social science is difficult partly because its concepts and language spill into journalism, politics, criticism, and everyday argument. The reader often approaches it already loaded with assumptions and verbal habits that feel familiar.
Adler argues that this apparent familiarity is dangerous. Social science can look easier than it is because its subject matter is close to ordinary life, but that same closeness makes prejudice and premature agreement more likely. Terms may be unstable, boundaries between disciplines blur, and the reader may agree or disagree on ideological grounds before reconstructing the actual argument.
This is why the concept belongs near epistemic humility. The reader must use restraint when asking "what of it?" because social-scientific conclusions often collide with prior commitments long before they are carefully weighed.
Adler also places social science at the end of his genre chapters because it pushes naturally toward syntopical reading. Few major social questions are settled by one book.