Learning Results
This course aims to analyze the various ways of interpreting reality (scientific, philosophical, religious,
aesthetic, common sense, etc.).
Modernity, post modernity and science;
Concepts of modernity and post modernity: description and critique;
The paradigm of modern science;
Common sense as an obstacle to scientific knowledge;
The devaluation of the social sciences;
Specialization of knowledge, hermetic discourse knowledge-power and the symbiosis;
The student should understand the logic of scientific inquiry: observation, measurability – disqualification of “qualities” of
objects.
Program
1 Epistemological reflection: the critique of scientific knowledge
Failure of internal autonomy of scientific knowledge
The post-modern paradigm of science
Sociologists and other social determinism – the bankruptcy of social normative
Philosophy, religion, aesthetics, art, poetry as “decoders” privileged of the world and life
2 Instruments of rupture with common sense in social sciences
Common sense as an obstacle to social scientific knowledge?
Content and scope of the methodological principle “to explain the social by the social”
Split individual – society: the interpretations of individual type
Spin-off “we” – “Others”: the kind of ethnocentric interpretations
Divisions of class and gender
Ethnocentrism in the social sciences
Conditions to break out with common sense
3 The unit of the plurality of social and social sciences
Concept of total social phenomenon (Mauss)
The differentiation of social sciences
The crisis of social sciences
4 Sociology
Internship(s)
NAO
Bibliography
– A.J. Avelãs Nunes, Noção e Objecto da Economia Política, Almedina, 34-104;
– Anthony Giddens, Sociologia, 2ª Edição, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, 199-237,307-345,619-661;
– Augusto Santos Silva, A Ruptura com o Senso Comum nas Ciências Sociais, em Metodologia das Ciências Sociais,
A.Santos Silva e J. Madureira Pinto (orgs.), 29-53, Edições Afrontamento;
– Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Um Discurso Sobre as Ciências, Edições Afrontamento;
– Bryan S. Turner, ed., Teoria Social, Difel, 313-346;
– Bryan S. Turner, ed., Teoria Social, Difel, 51-81, 143-170, 195-254, 405-436;
– Guy Rocher, Sociologia Geral- A Acção Social, Editorial Presença;
– Hubert Reeves, René Thom et alia, Abordagens do Real, Publicações Dom Quixote;
– J.M Carvalho Ferreira, João Peixoto, Anabela Soriano Carvalho, Rita Raposo, João Carlos Graça e Rafael Marques,
Sociologia, McGraw Hill, 215-241, 289-321, 407-477;
– Raymond Aron, As Etapas do Pensamento Sociológico, Publicações Dom Quixote, 139-211, 475-541;