Epistemology of social sciences

Duration

45h Th

Number of credits

Lecturer

Laurence Bouquiaux, Marc Jacquemain

Language(s) of instruction

French language

Organisation and examination

Teaching in the first semester, review in January

Units courses prerequisite and corequisite

Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program

Learning unit contents

The first part of the course presents some basical concepts of general epistemology and an introduction philosophy of science
The second part is dedicated to explanation in the social sciences. It will illustrate the diversity or explanation (intentional, causl functional) through the example of inequality of opportunity within educational systems.
The course will also dédicate some time to trace the difference between knowledge in the field of natural sciences and in the field of social sciences.

Learning outcomes of the learning unit

The main goal of the course is twofold :
- render students sensible to questions of conditions of validity of a social knowledge and to the relations between social theorists knowledge and lay people knowledge.
- make students conscious of the diversity of explanations in social sciences.

Prerequisite knowledge and skills

A basic knowledge of great theoretical questions in social sciences

Planned learning activities and teaching methods

Mode of delivery (face-to-face ; distance-learning)

The first part of the course will consist in ex-cathedra lessons illustrated by slides. The second part will be given as lectures by research fellows.
For the lectures, a more active participation will be asked from the students but the concrete modalities will depend on the number of inscribed students.

Recommended or required readings

For each part of the course, references or textbooks will be available.
Certain parts will also be illustrated with slides.

Assessment methods and criteria

Evaluation will be based on an oral examination. Students will be interrogated on  the various parts of the course :


Evaluation criteria will be :
- clarity of argumentation
- use of correct formulation
- capacity to make use of notion in order to reason further.
Marc Jacquemain will evaluate all students.

Work placement(s)

Organizational remarks

Contacts

Teachers :
Marc Jacquemain - 04 366 30 72
E-mail : Marc.Jacquemain@ulg.ac.be
 
Laurence Bouquiaux : 04 366 55 91
Laurence.Bouquiaux@ulg.ac.be
 

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