  If separating the social sciences from the humanities is a mistake, Oakeshott thinks, another is to imagine that the word “social” designates a subject for investigation. Sociology, he argues, is not a discipline with its own subject matter; it is what remains when disciplines such as economics and psychology have claimed certain aspects of human activity as their own. The study of a residual category cannot be a genuine discipline, nor is there any general science of society that grounds the conclusions of economics, psychology, and the other social sciences. What are loosely called social relationships are actually relationships in terms of specific practices—habits, customs, rules, and roles—that prescribe considerations of utility or propriety in acting. They are not, as Oakeshott thought sociologists were inclined to assume, 