Course for international guest/part time students
- Faculty
- Faculty of Humanities
- Organization
- BTK Institute of Philosophy
- Code
- BMI-FILD-401.08
- Title
- Elective Course in Philosophy: Philosophy of Social Science
- Usual semester
- Autumn
- ECTS
- 4
- Language
- Course content
- For the latest version of the syllabus, please visit the Philosophy course catalogue: http://lps.elte.hu/courselist/ The course offers a general survey of some of the main issues discussed within the discipline (monism versus dualism; methodological individualism; models of explanation in social science and history; rational choices), and focuses on two basic themes: - Methodological naturalism and anti-naturalism (historical survey: from the naturalism as it appears in the classical positivism and the anti-naturalism in the German philosophy at the turn of the 19th and 20th century, to the contemporary formulations) - Concept formation in the social and historical sciences (theoretical constructions versus historical descriptions; ideal typical constructions in the social and historical sciences; narrative constructions in history) Required readings: Selected pieces form Dilthey, Windelband, Weber, Hempel, Winch and Danto Recommended readings: Daniel Little: Varieties of Social Explanation. An Introduction to the Philosophy of Social Science. Boulder – San Francisco – Oxford, 1991. (Part III, Chapter 11) Scott Gordon: The History and Philosophy of Social Science. London, 1991, (Chapter 18)
- Assessment method
- Requirements: • 5 response papers, handed in before classes (35%) • regular attendance and active class participation (30%) • end of term exam (35%) OR • end of term exam (35%) • research paper (appr. 2000 words, for doctoral students 4000 words) (65%)
- Bibliography
- Readings (preliminary list): Elster, Jon. Explaining social behavior: More nuts and bolts for the social sciences. Cambridge University Press, 2015: 7-32. Haslanger, Sally. "Gender and race:(What) are they?(What) do we want them to be?" Noûs 34.1 (2000): 31-55. Little, D. „Microfoundations of Marxism”. In: M. Martin L. C. McIntyre (eds.): Readings in the Philosophy of Social Science, Cambridge (Mass.): MIT Press 1994. Machlup, F. “Are the Social Sciences Really Inferior?”, reprinted in M. Martin and L.C. McIntyre, eds. Readings in the Philosophy of Social Science, Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 1994. MacIntyre, A. „The Character of Generalisations in Social Science and their Lack of Predictive Power.” Curriculum Studies: Curriculum knowledge, 1, 282. Putnam, H. "Beyond the Fact/Value Dichotomy", in H. Putnam, Realism With a Human Face, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1990. Sen, A. "Rational Fools", Philosophy and Public Affairs, 6, pp. 317−44., 1976, reprinted in M. Martin and L.C. McIntyre, eds. Readings in the Philosophy of Social Science, Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 1994. Taylor, C. "Interpretation and the Sciences of Man", Review of Metaphysics, 25, pp. 3−51., 1971; reprinted in M. Martin and L.C. McIntyre, eds. Readings in the Philosophy of Social Science, Cambridge MA: MIT Pr mess, 1994. (excerpts) Watkins, J. W. N. „Historical Explanation in the Social Sciences”. In: M. Martin L. C. McIntyre (eds.): Readings in the Philosophy of Social Science, Cambridge (Mass.): MIT Press 1994. Weisstein, N. “Psychology Constructs the Female”. In: M. Martin L. C. McIntyre (eds.): Readings in the Philosophy of Social Science, Cambridge (Mass.): MIT Press 1994.