EPISTEMOLOGY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

Università degli Studi
"G. d'Annunzio"

Chieti - Pescara

Single discipline educational activity

Course Sheet

Course code:

000137

Academic Year of enrolment:

2020

Year of supply:

2020/2021

Type of Course:

Related/Supplementary

Degree:

Course of 1st Cycle Degree in SOCIOLOGY AND CRIMINOLOGY

Disciplinary Sector:

LOGIC AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE

Location:

CHIETI

Credits:

Programme Year:

Professor and Collaborators:

OLIVERIO Albertina

Cycle:

Second semester

Hours of classroom activity:

Individual study hours:

153

Prerequisites:

None

Objectives

This course  aims  to introduce  students  to  scientific  reasoning  within  natural  and social  sciences  from  their  origins.  We  will  then  study  the  problem  of  scientificity  and  objectivity  of  natural  and social  sciences, and the  problem  of social  sciences’  unit  research  analysis  (the  debate  around  individual  versus  society). The  course  will  then  focuses  on some  among  the  main  approaches  to the  explanation  of  individual  and  collective  behaviours  in social  sciences, with  particular  attention  to  the  rationality  problem  and  to the  new  frontiers  of social  neurosciences’  contribution.

Contents

Reasoning and explanation in science; the problem of induction; problems-theories-critics; verificationism versus falsificationism; objectivity of historical and social knowledge; methodological individualism and methodological holism; human action; social order; theories of action rationality; study of social interactions; individual autonomy and social, cultural and natural determinisms.

Extended Syllabus

MI - Institutional part (CFU 6) 
Introduction to scientific reasoning and methodological foundations of social sciences. 

MAT 1 - Specific part (CFU 3) 
Studying individual and society from a methodological perspective. 

Study of social interactions; individual autonomy and social, cultural and natural influences and determinisms.

Recommended Bibliography

(6 CFU) 
- Rosenberg,  Philosophy  of Social Science, Westview Press,  Fourth  Edition  (January 3, 2012).
 
 
(3 CFU)
- Choose (A) or (B):

A. Bicchieri, The Rules We Live By + M. Van Hees, Explaining Institutions: A Defence of Reductionism + D. Sperber, Selection and Attraction in Evolution, all the three essays are in: F. Guala, D. Steel, The Philosophy of Social Science Reader, Routledge, 2011.

B. Oliverio, Dall’imitazione alla cooperazione. La ricerca sociale e le sue sfide, Bollati Boringhieri, Torino, 2012.

- K. R. Popper, “Science: Conjectures and Refutations”, in K. R. Popper, Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge, Basic Books, 1962, from paragraph I to paragraph IX included.

Methods of Provision

Conventional

Teaching Methods

Frontal lessons and seminars

Evaluation methods

Verification of learning:

Written evaluation with open and/or closed questions.
Erasmus students have to contact the teacher concerning final exam's modalities.

Contacts/More Information

To meet the teacher please come to class during teaching semester or contact teacher by email (albertina.oliverio@unich.it).

Università degli Studi
"G. d'Annunzio"

Chieti - Pescara

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