Prof. J. McKenzie Alexander

This course is available on the MSc in Economics and Philosophy, MSc in Philosophy and Public Policy, MSc in Philosophy of Science and MSc in Philosophy of the Social Sciences. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

This course examines philosophical problems of social science concerning what societies are like and how scientists theorize about them. The first part of the course will focus on questions of scientific method about the nature of understanding and the kind of knowledge the social sciences should, or can, aim for; as well as on questions of ontology pertaining to the nature of the social world. The overarching goal is to provide an intellectual geography of the philosophy of the social sciences, to which students will refer in the second part of the course when specific philosophical issues will be closely analysed and discussed. Contents to be covered in the second term will be structured around three main themes: action, rationality and intelligibility; institutions, culture, and the relationship between mind and society; and the moral aims of the social sciences, as well as their role in just social change.

10 hours of lectures and 15 hours of seminars in the MT. 10 hours of lectures and 15 hours of seminars in the LT.

This year, some or all of this teaching will take place online.

Students will be expected to write four formative essays, two in Michaelmas term and two in Lent term. The two summative essays then correspond to the two formative essays which received the highest marks.  Class presentations or weekly activities may also be required, depending on the pedagogical approach of the class teacher.

A detailed reading list will be provided at the beginning of the course. Indicative readings include: Nancy Cartwright and Eleanora Montuschi (eds.), Philosophy of the Social Sciences: a new introduction; Harold Kincard, John Dupré, and Alison Wylie (eds.), Value-Free Science: Ideals and Illusions; Jon Elster, Explaining Social Behaviour; John H. Miller and Scott Page, Complex Adaptive Systems; Dawn Langan Teele, Field Experiments and Their Critics: Essays on the Uses and Abuses of Experimentation in the Social Sciences; Alex Rosenberg, Philosophy of Social Science (Fifth edition); Harold Kincaid, Philosophical Foundations of the Social Sciences; Daniel Steel and Francesco Guala (eds.), The Philosophy of Social Science Reader; Michael Martin and Lee McIntyre (eds.), Readings in the Philosophy of Social Science.

Essay (25%, 2000 words) in the LT.
Essay (25%, 2000 words) in the MT and LT.
Take-home assessment (50%) in the ST.

Summative assessment for PH405 will consist of two essays and a take-home exam. Of the four essays assigned over the course (two in Michaelmas term, two in Lent term), the two essays which received the highest marks will be selected to count towards 50% of the final grade (i.e., 25% for each essay). In Summer term, a take-home exam, to be completed over the course of a week, will also be set.