UCL - Advanced Studies in the Philosophy of Social Sciences

[FILO2600]

[30h] 5 credits

This course is taught in the 2d semester.

Teacher(s): Tom Dedeurwaerdere, Marc Maesschalck

Language: French

Level: Second

Aims
Main themes
Content and teaching methods
Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Aims

Upon completion of the course, the student should be able to pursue, in a well-informed and original manner, a question chosen from the area of the philosophy of the human and social sciences.
After completing the course, the student should be able to :
Use research tools appropriate for the philosophy of human sciences ;
Conceptualise the question that has been selected;
Situate the answers to this question within the framework of the history of key concepts in the human and social sciences, and in contemporary philosophical debates between different approaches and theories ;
Include, in the philosophical discussion of the selected question, contributions from other disciplines that bear upon the response to the question ;
Develop arguments regarding the response to the question in an original way.
Submit the method chosen for the study of the selected question to a critical reflection.

Main themes

Each year the course will concentrate on a particular theme, and will make sure to present and contrast different philosophical approaches to the theme.
The course will also attempt to combine the study of the selected theme with a reflection on the aims and methods of the philosophy of the human and social sciences.

Content and teaching methods

After a review of the essential philosophical and psychological discussions of the mind, the course will examine the evolutionary perspective, paying particular attention to primates. We shall examine the main causes for the mental evolution of primates: work, socio-political life. In particular, we shall study the problems revolving around the acquisition of language and the ability to understand the intentions of others. Finally, a hypothesis concerning the acquisition and development of intellectual powers will be put forward and examined.

Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Prerequisites :
Reading knowledge of English sufficient to allow study of contemporary texts in the area of the philosophy of the human and social sciences.