Dep Sem:PromPeril:Soc Science

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

This course serves as the "capstone" seminar for students enrolled in the Social and Political Thought program. It is open to other students, but all students enrolled in the S&P Thought program are expected to complete it successfully (usually in their senior year). It is designed to provide students with an opportunity to reflect together critically on issues in the development of the human, or "social" sciences, from a broad historical perspective. The course presupposes familiarity with at least some of the disciplines in question (anthropology, economics, psychology, political science, sociology), including the methodologies favored by practitioners. We will begin the course with a consideration of where the human sciences fit into the intellectual frameworks of antiquity and early modernity – that is to say, before they were seen as distinct and isolated spheres of study. How did Aristotle understand the study of human things in relation to other kinds of scientific inquiry? How did Bacon expect that the social sciences would fit into his broader modern scientific project? And what were some early concerns about the moral and political impact of the modern sciences? The historical consideration of the problems inherent to the study of human things will allow us to take a fresh look at the original vision of the social sciences as an arena for objective, value-free, inquiry. In the second part of the course we will revisit some of the issues that emerged in "Foundations of Social Theory," but now from a more critical perspective. What are some of the challenges that have been posed to traditional social science by historicism and postmodernism? And what new problems have been generated by scientific advancement itself – by technological advancements, for example, or advancements in genetics, or neuroscience? We will conclude the course with a consideration of the kinds of political and social structures that might be necessary in an age of increasing scientific complexity. This course is a seminar-style course, and will culminate in a research paper of 20-25 pages on a theme related to the subject-matter of the course, which is due at a date TBD at the end of the semester; or in the case of participants in the Social and Political Thought program, a "senior essay," which is to be presented to a meeting of the class involving members of the faculty of the program and then revised for submission in written form.