77992 - Philosophy of Social Sciences (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

The course aims at providing a deep knowledge of the major issues tackled in the contemporary epistemological debate on the social sciences. Core methodological and conceptual aspects of history, archaeology, anthropology, economics, psychology and - partly - medicine are addressed. Students will get familiar with relevant debates in contemporary philosophy of the social sciences, and shall be able to analyse and discuss key topics on the construction of scientific knowledge in such disciplines.

Course contents

Students will be introduced to some of the core topics in philosophy of the social sciences, and its most recent developments. After a critical introduction to "philosophy of the social sciences" as a field, the course will more specifically focus on: a) relations between the natural and the social sciences; b) individualism and collectivism in the philosophy of social sciences - with some examples from the empirical sciences; c) scientific objectivity, values, and standpoint theories; epistemic and non-epistemic virtues and views on scientific "objectivity" in current philosophy of social sciences. In the second part of the course some issues related to normativity and naturalism will be tackled with a specific focus on philosophy of health and philosophy of psychiatry, discussing definition and classification of mental disorders.

The course will be entirely delivered in English.

Students are required to take active part in the discussions.

 

Readings/Bibliography

Readings:

In Philosophy of Social Science, A New Introduction, eds. N. Cartwright and E. Montuschi, OUP 2014, parts II; III; IV.

B. Fay e J.D. Moon, "What Would an Adequate Philosophy of Social Science Look Like", in M. Martin and L. McIntyre (eds.), Readings in the Philosophy of Social Science, The MIT Press, 1994, pp. 21-35.

D.L. Smith, “Naturalism”, in L. McIntyre and A. Rosenberg (eds.), The Routledge Companion of Philosophy of Social Sciences, 2016, pp. 159-168.

H. Kincaid, Philosophical Foundations of the Social Sciences, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996, ch. 5: “The failures of individualism”, pp. 142-190.

P. Ylikoski, “Methodological Individualism”, in L. McIntyre and A. Rosenberg (eds.), The Routledge Companion of Philosophy of Social Sciences, 2016, pp.135-146.

C. Boorse (2011), “Concepts of health and disease”. In Handbook of the philosophy of science, vol. 16 of Philosophy of medicine, ed. F. Gifford. Amsterdam: Elsevier, pp. 13-64.

R. Cooper (2002), “Disease”, Studies in History and Philosophy of Biology and Biomedical Sciences, 33: 263-282

J. Wakefield (1992), “Disorder as harmful dysfunction: a conceptual critique of DSM-III-R's definition of mental disorder”. Psychological Review99(2): 232-47

Kendler, K., P. Zachar and C. Craver. (2011), “What kinds of things are psychiatric disorders?”, Psychological Medicine, 41, pp. 1143-1150.

K Tabb and K. Schaffner, “Causal Pathways, Random Walks, and Tortuous Paths: Moving from the Descriptive to the Etiological in Psychiatry”, in J. Parnas and K. Kendler (eds.), Issues in the Philosophy of Psychiatry IV, 2017, OUP

 

Further suggested volumes are:

"The Sage Handbook of the Philosophy of Social Sciences", eds. I.C. Jarvie and J. Zamora-Bonilla, Sage, 2011

"Naturalism in the Philosophy of Health", ed. E. Giroux, Springer 2016

"Philosophical Issues in Psychiatry", eds. K. Kendler and J. Parnas, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008

Teaching methods

The course will consist of lectures, which will either cover course contents or will consist in the reading and commenting of a text related to those contents. Students will be required to read some texts beforehand, to comment and discuss them in class.

Assessment methods

The exam will evaluate whether the student is familiar with the main topics dealt with in the course, and masters the fundamental notions needed to discuss merits and limits of the main current theories. The evaluation will take into account also the active participation during the course.

Students will have to write a short essay (min 2500, max 3000 words) in English on one of the topics addressed in course (references to be agreed upon with the Professor). The essay will be evaluated to establish whether the student is able to present and critically discuss the different theoretical persepctives examined in the course.

When students achieve an organic view of the issues addressed in lectures, demonstrating a mastery of the technical terminology and conceptual tools, and a keep knowledge of the texts and authors considered, they will be assessed with marks of excellence.

A positive assessment will be acknowledged to students who acquire an adequate, but not critical knowledge of the topics addressed, and use a correct, but not always precise language.

A mostly rote learning, the lack of adequate synthetic and/or analytic skills and of a specfic Language will lead to a fair evaluation.

Superficial knowledge of the course contents and/or inadequate use of technical langiage will lead to low grades.

Knowledge gaps, inappropriate or highly imprecise language, and lack of grasp of the critical points tackled in the course will lead to insufficient evaluation and failure

Teaching tools

Power-point slides, handouts and uploaded papers.

Office hours

See the website of Raffaella Campaner