Department of Sociology
University of Hyderabad

Knowing the Social World: Epistemologies for the Social Sciences

[Compulsory Course – M.A. Sociology – III Semester – Monsoon Semester 2020]
Design and Instruction: Sasheej Hegde

Note: The compulsory course, ‘Knowing the Social World: Epistemologies for the Social
Sciences’, has been pruned in the light of the revised academic schedule (Monsoon semester
2020) and the sheer exigency of the online mode. Every effort, yet, has been made to retain
the original impulse of the course, namely, to structure a conversation between the
philosophy of social sciences, sociological theories and research methods.

What is being rendered below is an ‘experimental’ outline, cast in both pragmatic and
operational terms. Hopefully we can all find our way through it – tangibly and creditably.
The listed readings will be made available as the course rolls; and, depending on the feedback
of the students, active readings may be supplemented and/or replaced. The evaluation
protocols will be clarified in due course, once the institutional guidelines are in place.

Revised course outline:

I. Preliminaries: Beyond the ‘hermeneutics of suspicion’?

a) Setting the terms and clarifying the rationale of the course – the ‘culture of sociology’
and beyond.

b) Paradigms and epistemologies of research: reframing the standard picture [Reading

from Ch. 2 of Andrew Abbott, Methods of Discovery: Heuristics for the Social
Sciences (2004); Ch.5 of Linda Alcoff and Elizabeth Potter (ed.), Feminist
Epistemologies (1993); and ‘Introduction’ of Andrew Sayer, Method in Social
Science: A Realist Approach (2010, 2nd revised edn).]

c) Exploring ‘contexts’ of theory and theorizing [Ch.1 of Richard Swedberg (ed.),

Theorizing in Social Science: The Context of Discovery (2014) will configure the
terms.]

II. The ‘interpretive’ dimension of the social sciences revisited

a) The concept of ‘understanding’ and contextualized self-interpretations:

epistemological and methodological aspects [Reading here will be from Ch.1 and
Ch.4 of Charles Taylor, Philosophy and the Human Sciences: Philosophical Papers 2
(1985); also Ch.13 of Stephen P. Turner and Paul A. Roth (ed.), The Blackwell Guide
to the Philosophy of the Social Sciences (2003).]

b) ‘Reasons’ and ‘causes’ and the idea of ‘mechanisms’ [Ch.5 and Ch.9 of Mark Risjord,
Philosophy of Social Science: A Contemporary Introduction (2014).]

 
 

c) Rethinking the evaluative basis of social scientific inquiry [Ch.5 and Ch.9 of Bent
Flyvbjerg, Making Social Science Matter: Why Social Inquiry Fails and How it Can
Succeed Again (2001); and Ch.2 of Mark Risjord, Philosophy of Social Science: A
Contemporary Introduction (2014).]

III. Critical departures

a) ‘Strong objectivity’ and standpoint theory [Readings here include Ch.3 of Linda
Alcoff and Elizabeth Potter (ed.), Feminist Epistemologies (1993) and Ch.12 of
Stephen P. Turner and Paul A. Roth (ed.), The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of
the Social Sciences (2003).]

b) The challenge of situated knowledges: the Indian debate over theory and experience
[Ch.1 and Ch.2 of Gopal Guru and Sundar Sarukkai, The Cracked Mirror: An Indian
Debate on Experience and Theory (2012).]

c) Theory, history and social science [Chapter by Margaret R. Somers in Terrence J.

McDonald (ed.), The Historic Turn in the Human Sciences (1996) and Ch.3 of
William H. Sewell Jr., Logics of History: Social Theory and Social Transformation
(2005).]

Sasheej Hegde
Email: <sasheej@gmail.com>, <shhss@uohyd.ac.in>
Date: 12 August 2020