PHILOSOPHY OF SOCIAL SCIENCE INTS 4522 Spring 2010 - Jack Donnelly and Martin Rhodes - What is the nature of social science and the knowledge that it produces? This course, which is intended to complement INTS 4500 (Social Science Methodology) and INTS 4010 (Epistemology), introduces students to the leading mainstream perspectives on the philosophy of social science. Special attention is given to Positivism and Post-Positivism, Post-Structuralism, Pragmatism, and Scientific Realism. There will be one textbook for the course: Peter Godfrey-Smith, Theory and Reality: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science, Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2003. Some of the other texts will also be available for purchase in the bookstore. The course will be assessed via two written exercises: a single essay of approximately 3-3500 words, or 10 pages double spaced (relating to the first half of the course) at mid-term, and a 15-20 page review essay of a book or several articles, applying the tools acquired during the course, at the end of term. The class will take place on Wednesdays, 2:00 pm 5.00 pm in Room Sie 150. WEEKLY TOPIC OUTLINE AND READINGS WEEK 1: WEDNESDAY MARCH 24 TH Part 1: Introduction to the scope of the course (Martin Rhodes) Part 2: Hume on Causation (Jack Donnelly) David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. The minimum necessary reading is III, IV and (especially) Part II of VII. (More optimally, one would read III-VII and skim IX, X.) (available online at http://18th.eserver.org/hume-enquiry.html) Dave Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature, Book I, Part III, 1-4, 14, 15. (available online at http://oll.libertyfund.org/index.php?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3ftitle=342&ite mid=27) James Mahoney (2008), Toward a Unified Theory of Causality. Comparative Political Studies 41, 4-5, pp. 412-436. Tom L. Beauchamp and Alexander Rosenberg, Hume and the Problem of Causation, pp. 3-32, 139-170. Milja Kurki (2008), Causation in International Relations: Reclaiming Causal Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ch. 1, 3.
2 WEEK 2: WEDNESDAY MARCH 31 ST Logical Positivism and the Beginnings of Post-Positivism (Martin Rhodes) The University of Chicago Press, 2003. chapters 2 ( Logic plus Empiricism ), 3 ( Induction and Confirmation ) and 4 (Popper: Conjecture and Refutation) Karl Popper (1963), Science: Conjectures and Refutations, ch. 1 of Karl Popper, Conjectures and Refutations, pp. 43-86 (On Blackboard: Course Karl Popper (1963), Truth, Rationality and the Growth of Scientific Knowledge, ch. 10 of Karl Popper, Conjectures and Refutations, pp. 291-338 (On Blackboard: Course Daniel Little, (1993) Evidence and Objectivity in the Social Sciences, Social Research, 60, 2, pp. 363-396 (online through Penrose Catalog). WEEK 3: WEDNESDAY APRIL 7 TH Kuhn, Normal Science and Scientific Revolutions (Martin Rhodes) The University of Chicago Press, 2003. chapters 5 ( Kuhn and Normal Science ), and 6 ( Kuhn and Revolutions ) Thomas S. Kuhn, (1962), The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, chs. 2 ( The Route to Normal Science ), 3 ( The Nature of Normal Science ), 4 ( Normal Science as Puzzle-Solving ), 5 ( The Priority of Paradigms ), 6 ( Anomaly and the Emergence of Scientific Discoveries), 10 ( Revolutions as Changes of World View ), 12 ( The Resolution of Revolutions ) and 13 ( Progress through Revolutions). (On Blackboard: Course Karl Popper, (1970), Normal Science and its Dangers, in Imre Lakatos and Alan Musgrave (eds.), Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge, Cambridge University Press, pp. 51-58. (On Blackboard: Course Thomas S. Kuhn (1970), Reflections on my Critics, in Imre Lakatos and Alan Musgrave (eds.), Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge, Cambridge University Press pp. 231-278 (On Blackboard: Course WEEK 4: WEDNESDAY APRIL 14 TH Part 1: Lakatos and Scientific Research Programs (Martin Rhodes) The University of Chicago Press, 2003, ch. 7 ( Lakatos, Laudan, Feyerabend and Frameworks ) Imre Lakatos (1970), Falsification and the Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes, in Imre Lakatos and Alan Musgrave (eds.), Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge, Cambridge University Press, parts 1, 2, 3a, b and d4, and 4. (On Blackboard: Course Part 2: Polanyi, Personal Knowledge and Scientific Beliefs Polanyi, Michael (1952), The Stability of Beliefs, The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 3, 11, November, pp. 217-232 (On Blackboard: Course
3 Struan Jacobs (2002), Polanyi s Presagement of the Incommensurability Concept, Studies in the History of the Philosophy of Science, 33, pp. 105 120 Part 3: Feyerabend s Radical Relativism Paul K. Feyerabend (1970), Consolations for the Specialist, in Imre Lakatos and Alan Musgrave (eds.), Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge, Cambridge University Press, pp. 197-230 (On Blackboard: Course Paul K. Feyerabend (1975) Against Method, London: Verso Books, pp. 14-38; pp. 125-134; pp. 147-158; and pp. 214-229 (On Blackboard: Course John Preston (2000), Science as Supermarket: Postmodern Themes in Paul Feyerabend s Later Philosophy of Science, in John Preston, Gonzalo Munévar and David Lamb (eds.) The Worst Enemy of Science? Essays in Memory of Paul Feyerabend, Oxford University Press, pp. 80-101 (On Blackboard: Course WEEK 5: WEDNESDAY APRIL 21 ST The Two Sociologies: Émile Durkheim and Max Weber (Martin Rhodes) Max Weber (1949) Objectivity in Social Science and Social Policy, in Edward A. Shils and Henry A. Finch (eds. & trans.), Max Weber on the Methodology of the Social Sciences, Free Press of Glencoe, Ill., pp. 49-112. (On Blackboard: Course Émile Durkheim (1938), The Rules of Sociological Method, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Ill., chs 1 ( What is a Social Fact ), 2 ( Rules for the Observation of Social Facts ), 5 ( Rules for the Explanation of Social Facts ), and 6 ( Rules Relative to Establishing Sociological Proofs ). (On Blackboard: Course Baert, P. (2005), Philosophy of the Social Sciences, Cambridge: Polity Press, ch. 1 ( Émile Durkheim s Naturalism ) and ch. 2 (Max Weber s Interpretative Method ). (On Blackboard: Course Ragin, C. and D. Zaret (1983), Theory and Method in Comparative Research: Two Strategies, Social Forces, 61, 3, pp. 731-754. (On Blackboard: Course WEEK 6: WEDNESDAY APRIL 28 TH Part 1: Hermeneutics (Martin Rhodes) Charles Taylor (1985), Interpretation and the Sciences of Man, in Philosophy and the Human Sciences: Philosophical Papers: Volume 2, Cambridge University Press, pp. 15-57 (On Blackboard: Course Hans-Georg Gadamer (1975), Language as Horizon of a Hermeneutic: (A) Language as Experience of the World, in Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method, New York: The Seabury Press, pp. 397-414. (On Blackboard: Course Thomas S. Kuhn (2000), The Natural and the Human Sciences, in Thomas S. Kuhn, The Road Since Structure, Chicago: Chicago University Press, pp. 216-223. (On Blackboard: Course Michael T. Gibbons (2006), Hermeneutics, Political Enquiry, and Practical Reason: An Evolving Challenge to Political Science, American Political Science Review, 100, 4, pp. 1-9.
4 Part 2: Ordinary Language Analysis (Jack Donnelly) Hanna Fenichel Pitkin, Wittgenstein and Justice, ch. 2, 5, 6 Stanley Cavell, Must We Mean What We Say?, ch. 1, Must We Mean What We Say? John Rawls (1955) Two Concepts of Rules, Philosophical Review 64: 3-32. Edward Witherspoon, Conventions and Forms of Life, in Frederick K. Schmitt, ed., Socializing Metaphysics: The Nature of Social Reality. John Searle, Social Ontology and Political Power, in Schmitt, ed., Socializing Metaphysics. Peter Winch, The Idea of a Social Science and its Relation to Philosophy, ch. 2, The Nature of Meaningful Behavior. WEEK 7: WEDNESDAY MAY 5 TH Constructivism (Jack Donnelly) Bruno Latour and Steve Woolgar (1986), Laboratory Life: The Construction of Scientific Facts, ch. 6 and pp. 284-285 (online through Penrose Catalog). Alan Nelson (1994), How Could Scientific Facts be Socially Constructed?, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 25 (4): 535-547 (online through Penrose Catalog). Niklas Luhmann, Theories of Distinction, ch. 6, The Cognitive Program of Constructivism and the Reality that Remains Unknown. Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann, The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge, ch. 1, 2. André Kukla (2000), Social Constructivism and the Philosophy of Science. Ron Mallon, Social Construction, Social Roles, and Stability, in Frederick K. Schmitt, ed., Socializing Metaphysics: The Nature of Social Reality. WEEK 8: WEDNESDAY MAY 12 TH Pragmatism (Jack Donnelly) William James, Pragmatism, Lectures 2 ( What Pragmatism Means ) and 6 ( Pragmatism s Conception of Truth ) OR The Pragmatic Method and Pragmatism's Conception of Truth, Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods 1 (1904): 673-687 and 4 (1907): 141-155. (JSTOR) John Dewey, Experience and Nature, ch. 1, end of ch. 2 (pp. 60-68 or 56-62), and especially ch. 4. Richard Rorty, Consequences of Pragmatism, Introduction, ch. 1, 9
5 Charles Sanders Peirce, The Essential Peirce, Volume II: Pragmatism as the Logic of Abduction, and Pragmatism, especially Introduction (pp. 398-401) and Variant 2 (pp. 421-433) W. V. Quine, Two Dogmas of Empiricism, The Philosophical Review 60 (1951): 20-43. (JSTOR) WEEK 9: WEDNESDAY MAY 19 TH Scientific Realism (Jack Donnelly) Rom Harré, Varieties of Realism, ch. 1-4, 10-12. Alexander Wendt, Social Theory of International Politics, ch. 2. Scientific Realism and Social Kinds. Richard Boyd, What Realism Implies and What It Does Not, Dialectica 43 (1989): 5-29. Hilary Putnam, The Many Faces of Realism, Lectures I and II. Roy Bhaskar, Scientific Realism and Human Emancipation, especially chapter 2 and as much of chapter 1 as is tolerable. Ilkka Niiniluoto, Critical Scientific Realism, ch. 1, 2, 7-9. WEEK 10: WEDNESDAY MAY 26 TH Institutional and Brute Facts (Jack Donnelly) John Searle, The Construction of Social Reality, pp. 23-90, 120-197, 219-221.