Philosophy: epistemology, metaphysics and ethics; Social sciences; Historical and philosophical
roots of social sciences: Comte, Dilthey, Durkheim, Weber and Marx; Modes of social inquiry:
natural scientific, critical social science, social constructionist viewpoints and contemporary
hermeneutics; Instrumental reason and its critics; Abstraction and the life world; Debates about
value-neutrality; Methodological holism and methodological individualism: holism/individualism
debates, social atomism and reductionism; Explanations in social sciences; Differences between
natural and social sciences; Objectivism, relativism and objectivity.
Texts/References:
1. R. Bishop, The Philosophy of the Social Sciences: An Introduction, Continuum International, 2007.
2. A.Rosenberg, Philosophy of Social Sciences, Westview Press, 2008.
3. T. M. Peter, A Realist Philosophy of Social Science: Explanation and Understanding, Cambridge
University Press, 2006.
4. M. Hollis, The Philosophy of Social Sciences, Cambridge University Press, 2000.
5. M. Martin (ed.), Readings in the Philosophy of Social Science, MIT, 1994.
