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Foundations of Political & Social Science: Philosophy, Theory and Ethics (SPS-RECHE-PHI-23)

SPS-RECHE-PHI-23

Purpose

This seminar critically examines the scaffolding that stands behind all social science research. It begins – Part I - with four sessions on how we understand the social world we seek to study. As positivists? Critical realists? Interpretivists?  In these first weeks, we will also explore the extensive philosophical literature behind that little thing upon which almost all of us rely: cause (J). This broad philosophical focus allows us to see both the strengths and limitations of our preferred way of doing social science, as well as the pluses and minuses of the differing ways we operationalize causality (causal effects, causal mechanisms, local causation, constitutive causation).

Part II consists of three sessions on how we use theory to explain, understand or normatively assess the world around us. But how do we develop theory? Deductively? Inductively? Abductively? Do we advance a new theory, starting from first principles? Or do we begin with existing theory, seeking to modify it? What role is there for normative theorizing in our empirical studies? Does sociology’s grounded theory offer a toolkit for what many of us do in practice – going back and forth between deductive hunches and inductive discovery?

In the seminar’s final three weeks – Part III – we complete the scaffolding by turning to ethics. All social science must be ethical – but what does this mean in practice? We develop a broad understanding of ethics – grounded in the core principles of do no harm and research integrity - noting its dynamic nature throughout the research process. We then drill down and explore ethical dilemmas and challenges in three different methodological/design areas: (1) qualitative; (2) quantitative; and (3) experiments.
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