Philosophy of Social Science: Course Outline/Lectures There will be six lectures, given at 10 on Tuesdays in Weeks 1-3 and 5-7; there will be no lecture in Week 4
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- 1. Naturalism Mark I and Its Critics (Causal Explanation; the Fact-Value Distinction; the Search for Laws; Geisteswissenschaften vs Naturewissenschaften )
- 2. The Hypothetico-Deductive Conception of Explanation vs Epistemological Anarchism
- 3. Winchcraft and Witchcraft: Anti-Naturalism and Interpretive Social Science; the Hermeneutic Turn
- 4. Holistic Explanation and Methodological Individualism
- 5. Functionalism: Left, Right, or Vacuous
- 6. Rationalisation, Rationalism, and Rational Choice Theory
| Philosophy of Social Science: Course Outline/Lectures
There will be six lectures, given at 10 on Tuesdays in Weeks 1-3 and 5-7; there will be no lecture in Week 4. These six lectures have a simple structure: the first two lectures introduce the subject by sketching some 19th Century arguments and their modern re-writings. The history begins with Mill and reactions from philosophers (Dilthey) and sociologists (Durkheim and to a degree Weber); it goes on to logical empiricists (Hempel and Nagel) and the unplaceable Popper. Naturalism of the sort defended by Mill, Hempel, and (up to a point) Popper was canonical in the anglophone world for forty years. It comes with an ideal history of scientific progress – whether inductive or by ‘conjecture and refutation.’ The underlying question is whether the social sciences are the natural sciences of the social world, so that the history of the successful physical sciences can be taken as the model for progress in social science. This recipe for progress is undermined by historians of science (Kuhn) who argue that the actual history of the most respected sciences is at odds with the recipe; it is further undermined by epistemological anarchists (Feyerabend) who maintain that all recipes are flawed. Lectures 3 to 6 turn to issues dividing social scientists as well as philosophers: hermeneutic analysis, holistic explanation, functionalism, and rational choice theory. The reading for the lectures is Michael Martin and Lee C. McIntyre (eds), Readings in the Philosophy of Social Science (MIT, 1994, 5th printing, 2001); several of the lectures will rest heavily on arguments usefully reprinted there. Everything in it will be referred to as M&M, by part and/or chapter. 1. Naturalism Mark I and Its Critics (Causal Explanation; the Fact-Value Distinction; the Search for Laws; Geisteswissenschaften vs Naturewissenschaften) Reading:Mill, A System of Logic, Books III (selectively) and VI (ditto) Durkheim, “Social Facts,” M&M, ch 27 (otherwise all of The Rules of Sociological Method). Dilthey, Introduction to the Human Sciences (Princeton UP, 1988) Weber, Methodology of the Social Sciences, ed Shils and Finch (Free Press, 1949)
Karl Popper, Conjecture and Refutation, ch 1 T.S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (2nd ed.) Imre Lakatos & Paul Feyerabend, Against Method 3. Winchcraft and Witchcraft: Anti-Naturalism and Interpretive Social Science; the Hermeneutic Turn Reading: Peter Winch, The Idea of a Social Science Charles Taylor, “Interpretation and the Sciences of Man,” M&M, ch 13; Clifford Geertz, “Thick Description: Towards an Interpretive Theory of Culture,” M&M, ch 14 [M&M, Part III, throughout is useful.] 4. Holistic Explanation and Methodological Individualism Reading: Popper, The Poverty of Historicism [the ur-text] M&M, chs 27 (Durkheim, above), 28, Watkins, “Historical Explanation in the Social Sciences,” 29, Lukes, “Methodological Individualism Reconsidered.” 5. Functionalism: Left, Right, or Vacuous? Reading: M&M, part V, omitting ch 26: ie, Hempel, “The Logic of Functional Analysis,” Dore, “Function and Cause,” Cohen, “Functional Explanation in Marxism,” Elster, “Functional Explanations in the Social Sciences.” Merton, Social Theory and Social Structure, ch 8 6. Rationalisation, Rationalism, and Rational Choice Theory Reading: M&M, part IV, ch 18, Lukes, “Some Problems about Rationality,” ch 19, Føllesdal, “The status of Rationality Assumptions in Interpretation and in the Explanation of Action,” ch 20, Elster, “The Nature and Scope of Rational Choice Explanation.” Amartya Sen, Rationality and Freedom, ch 1. Donald Green & Ian Shapiro, Pathologies of Rational Choice, (Yale UP, 1995)
Martin Hollis, The Philosophy of Social Science: An Introduction (Cambridge, 1994) David Braybrooke, The Philosophy of Social Science (Prentice-Hall, 1987) Alexander Rosenberg, The Philosophy of Social Science (Westview Press, 2nd ed, 1995) Alan Ryan Download 9.49 Kb. Share with your friends:
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