SVF-8035: Philosophy of Science (7 ECTS)

Date: 4 - 7 March 2008
Course venue: University of Tromsø, map, building 27
Room: Tuesday in auditorium 2. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday in room 1.425.

Target group:
PhD students in social science, humanities and psychology.

The course is meant for doctoral candidates and other researchers at the university and university colleges who wish to increase their competence in the analysis of foundational problems in social and cultural sciences.

Number of participants:
The maximum number of participants is 40. Preference for admission is in accordance with Section 9 of the Regulations for PhD programmes.

Academic coordiantor:
Willy Guneriussen (willyg@sv.uit.no)

The course will cover some general philosophical perspectives and also focus on some more specific themes within the broad field of theory of science in the social and cultural sciences.

Main theme, spring 2008:

Objectivity and subjectivity in the human sciences.
The course will focus particularly on various problems and challenges concerning objectivity in the studies of human societies, culture and action. Discussions have been going on a long time between various perspectives – from more traditional empiricist position to recent postmodern and deconstructive ways of thinking. The discussion reaches into ontological questions as to the “nature” of human relations and social reality and into epistemological questions concerning the conditions of knowledge of intentional action, social structures and culture.

Program
Tuesday 4 March

10.00-10.15:	Introduction
10.15-11.45:	Associate Professor Jan Harald Alnes, UiT. "Reflections on Radical Translation and the Social Sciences" (relevant litterature - see chapters by Martin and Quine in the list).
12.00-13.30:	Professor Kirsten Simonsen, Roskilde University. "Social ontology: Practice, contextuality and nature"
13.30-14.30:	Break / lunch
14.30-16.00:	Paper / Discussions

Wednesday 5 March

9.00-10.30:	Professor Tone Bleie, UiT. "The challenge from second generation cognitive science to the understanding of objectivity and subjectivity in the human sciences: some examples and their implications"
10.45-12.15:	Professor em. Dag Østerberg, University of Oslo. "The objective as the subject's / project's objectivation" (relevant litterature - see articles by Østerberg in the list).
12.15-13.15:	Break / lunch
13.15-15.45:	Paper / Discussions

Thursday 6 March

9.00-10.30:	Professor em. Dag Østerberg, University of Oslo. "How statistics objectifies subjects, i.e. constitutes them as objects".
10.45-12.15:	Professor Willy Guneriussen, UiT. "Objectivity and subjectivity as cultural concepts"
12.15-13.15:	Break / lunch
13.15-15.45:	Paper / Discussions

Friday 7 March

9.00-10.30:	Dr.philos. Lars Bugge, University of Oslo "Subjectivity and objectivity in the social sciences" (relevant litterature - see Winch and Bhaskar in the list).
10.45-11.45:	Final discussions and evaluation

Changes in schedule can occur - and will eventually be anounced.

Syllabus:
This is a list of relevant publications. The participants can choose among these or use other texts more relevant for their paper and project. The paper should refer to some more general problems within the wide field of theory of the (human) sciences and (usually) also to more specific foundational problems within the candidates research field or discipline.

The book by Boham (1993) is currently out of print. Therefor the books by Baert (2005) and Hollis (1996) are recommended for a general theoretical and philosophical background.

Alcott, L. and Potter, E (eds.) (1993): Feminist Epistemologies, London: routledge

Baert, Patrick (2005): Philosophy of the Social Sciences: Towards pragmatism, Cambridge: Polity Press

Barth, F. (1992): Towards greater naturalism in conceptualizing societies, in Kuper, A. (ed) (1992): Conceptualizing Society, London: Routledge, pp. 17 – 33.

Bhaskar, Roy: The Possibility of Naturalism (chapter 4, "Philosophies")

Bernstein, R.J. (1985): Beyond Objectivism and Relativism, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, Part One: pp. 1 – 50.

Bohman, James (1993): New Philosophy of Social Science, Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press

Code, L. (1993): Taking Subjectivity into Account, in Alcott, L. and Potter, E (eds.) (1993) pp. 15 – 48.

Harding, S. (1993): Rethinking Standpoint Epistemology: “What Is Strong Objectivity” in Alcott, L. and Potter, E (eds.) (1993) pp. 49 – 82.

Harding, Sandra (1991): Whose Science? Whose Knowledge? New York: Cornell University Press.

Hollis, Martin (1994): The Philosophy of Social Science, an introduction, Cambridge: Cambridge university Press

Horkheimer, Max (1968/1937): Tradisjonelle und kritische Theorie, i Horkheimer: ”Kritische Theorie II” Frankfurt: Suhrkamp (English and Norwegian translations available).

Martin, R.M. (1989): The meaning of Language. The MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass. (Chapter 6).

Narayan, Uma (1989): The Project of Feminist Epistemology: Perspectives from a Nonwestern Feminist, in Jaggar, A.M. and Bordo, S.R. (1989): Gender/Body/Knowledge, London: Rutgers University Press, pp. 256 – 272.

Quine: Word and Object. Chapter 2.

Schütz, Alfred (1974): Der sinnhafte Aufbau der sozialen Welt (pp 42-49 on subjective and objective meaning). Frankfurt a.m.:Suhrkamp (English translation available).

Weber, Max (1988/1904): Die ”Objektivität” socialwissenschaftlicher und sozialpolitischer Erkenntnis, Tübingen: J.C. B. Mohr (English and Norwegian translations available).

Yearley, Steven (2005): Making Sense of Science, London: Sage Publications

White, Hayden (2003): Historie og fortelling, Oslo: Pax Forlag. The essays in this book have been translated from various books and articles by Hayden White. Originally published in English.

Winch, Peter: The Idea of a Social Science and Its Relation to Philosophy. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Østerberg, Dag (1988): Social Statistic and Sosial Research, in Østerberg: "Metasociology", Oslo, Norwegian University Press, pp 18-45.

Østerberg, Dag: Cassirer and Recent Constructivist Sociology: An Assessment, in Gunnar Foss and Eivind Kasa (eds.): "Forms of Knowledge and Sensibility. Ernst Cassirer and the Human Sciences. Høgskoleforlaget.

Language of instruction:
In the spring semester 2008 the PhD course in Philosophy of Science will be held in English.
Language of examination: The paper and presentation from students during the course may be in English or Norwegian.

Information in English about the different courses

Credits: 7 ECTS or 3 ECTS