Some Thoughts on the Relations Between the Humanities and the Social Studies

I am intrigued by the view that the social studies have been characterized as "the scientific humanities." The statement sounds like a contradiction in terms and, on that account, piques my concern to inquire into the relations which hold between literature, the arts, religion and philosophy and the social studies which draw their substance from the parent disciplines and while not concerned to maintain their disparate structures seek, nevertheless, to maintain their "habits of mind."