Epistemology of Social Sciences

Teacher(s)

De Munck Jean ;

Language

Français

Main themes

The course will be focused on current issues in epistemology of social sciences (sociology and anthropology). 1 post-parsonian sociological theory. Landmarks of contemporary debates in epistemology, in the French-speaking world as well as German and Anglo-Saxon contexts. Mapping of the discussions ; comments on contradictions, differences etc. 2. Main epistemological issues, in a traditional and a contemporary light. A dialogue is established between classical writings and contemporary texts. One of the aims is to show the continuities/discontinuities between historical and current frames of epistemological issues. 3. Reading of relevant litterature.

Content

First part : Maping the Debate. The crisis of the " general theory " in sociology will be explained and evalu-ated. The course will map the debate, taking into account different approaches : ethnomethodology as a critique of classical sociology (Garfinkel, Sacks) ; different families of constructivism (Berger & Luckmann, Hacking) and postmodernism (Law, Latour, Baumann) ; epistemological grounding of rational choice theory and its discussion; recent trends in critical social theory (Habermas, Honneth, gender et race studies) ; neo-institutionalism (DiMaggio, North) ; interpretive turn (Geertz). Second part : epistemological debates. Main issues of epistemological discussions in social sciences are re-viewed. A connection between classical and contemporary texts is established in a historical and comparative way. Among other issues : epistemological obstacle and epistemological break (Bachelard , Cicourel), the-ory/observation (Hempel, Passeron), theory/practice (Marx, Bourdieu), explanation/understanding (Weber, Apel), interpretation (Weber, Geertz), ethnocentrism (Winch, Taylor, McIntyre), holism/individualism(Popper and Descombes), neutrality/critique (Weber, Horkheimer, Thévenot). Teaching practice. The first part is a course ; the second part, a seminar. The seminar sessions are prepared by the students. They will be devoted to explanations, comments and discussions of texts. A short individual work is required. Readings : - A reader (10 texts) is the common basis of discussions - Every student is invited to set up his (her) own bibliography according to the topic (s)he wants to focus on.

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