Hypotheses in Human Sciences. Considerations on the nature, functions and uses of hypotheses

This article reflects on the use of the hypothesis in scientific research and in the elaboration of texts in Human Sciences. It aims to present, in the first part, the nature and importance of the hypothesis in Social and Human Sciences, bringing examples from History, Sociology, Urbanism and other fields of knowledge. Hypotheses are discussed as necessary resources for the social and humans sciences that are based on problems. The article points out the functions of the hypothesis for research in particular and for Scientific Knowledge as a whole. The overriding goal of the article is to make a contribution to students and professors of the social and human knowledge fields, giving some practical suggestions and means for understanding and clarifying how hypotheses can be used in these fields. To clarify the explanation, the main example present in the text refers to a historical problem related to the Conquest of America in the 16th century, aiming to show that, in the human sciences fields, a single problem may have many different hypotheses and solutions.