The course aims to provide the students with the epistemological tools for the analysis and critical understanding of social sciences.
The aim of the course is to provide the tools to know and understand the fundamental phases of evolution of scientific reflection, the discussion on logic and scientific method, the application of the general principles of epistemological and methodological analysis to specific problems of social Sciences .
The course specifically aims to provide students with interdisciplinary competences regarding philosophical and methodological knowledge. To pursue this goal, the students will have to
A special attention will be devoted to the common aspects of social sciences, as well as their specificities, thus focusing on such disciplines as sociology, economics, and anthropology. Students will also learn
Students will be encouraged to develop a critical approach towards natural and social sciences with a view to appreciating both sciences’ objectivity and their diversity.
The first two parts of the course will consist of lectures. The attending students will have the opportunity of presenting and discussing part of the course material in seminars.
The course will investigate the debate concerning the epistemological specificity of social sciences. In the first part, the main authors and themes in the philosophy of science will be introduced. In the second part, we will focus on the issue of whether the standards of hard sciences may be applied to social sciences. Besides the debate on the specificity of social sciences, we will also analyze common issues such as the social construction of science, the relation between power and science, the issue of reductionism and the problem of social facts. The last part of the course will be devoted to seminars. Students who attend the course will have the opportunity to address such problems as the specificity of economics, the possibility of experiments in social sciences, the social construction of gender and sexual identities, and the epistemological status of anthropological method.
Reading list for the attending students:
- T. Benton, I. Craib, Filosofia della scienza sociale. I fondamenti filosofici del pensiero sociale, (Torino: UTET, 2010). Capp: 1-5, 7, 10
One within the following list:
-E. Durkheim, Le regole del metodo sociologico (Milano: Edizioni di Comunità)
-E. Durkheim, Il suicidio: studio di sociologia (Milano: Rizzoli)
-M. Weber, Il metodo delle scienze sociali (Milano: Edizioni di Comunità)
- Kuhn, La struttura delle rivoluzioni scientifiche (Torino: Einaudi)
-Istituto per la Ricerca Sociale di Francoforte, Lezioni di sociologia, a cura di M. Horkheimer, Th.W. Adorno (Torino: Einaudi)
-K. Popper, Congetture e confutazioni: lo sviluppo della conoscenza scientifica (Bologna: il Mulino), cap. 1, 3, 10, 11, 16
- Searle, La costituzione della realtà sociale (Torino: Einaudi), cap. 1-6
Non attending students will also have to read one within the following list:
Introductory books to epistemology
Ricevimento: Write me an email to arrange a meeting.
FEDERICO ZUOLO (President)
VALERIA OTTONELLI
MARIA SILVIA VACCAREZZA
19 Februrary 2019
PHILOSOPHY OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES
Oral examination
The final evaluation will also take into account the seminars and the students’ participation in class.
