PhD 23.

2 Batch

Year 1 Semester 1.2

DMT 1502: Sociology of Knowledge – Timetable

Date Time Description

1. Introduction. Purpose and structure of the course, teams and tasks, assessment requirements, time
and schedule of upcoming online seminars via Teams. Additional literature. Ancient period: Socrates, Plato
and Aristotle

Assignment 1: Are any ancient theories, ideas, or concepts relevant today? Why? Why not? Do you see any
05.03.2024 8.00 pm - 11.00 pm
relevance of Socrates’s, Plato’s or Aristotle’s ideas in relation to your own PhD studies? Write 2-3 pages
(excluding references). Upload in Forum, deadline one week after this seminar.

Peer review 1: Comment on at least one peer’s assignment 1 text. Deadline 2 weeks after this seminar.

2. Renaissance period: Descartes, Hume and Comte

Assignment 2: Are any renaissance theories, ideas, or concepts relevant today? Why? Why not? Do you see
8.00 pm - 11.00 pm any relevance of Descartes’s, Hume’s and Comte’s ideas in relation to your own PhD studies? Write 2-3
19.03.2024 pages (excluding references). Upload in Forum, deadline one day before this seminar.

Peer review 2: Comment on at least one peer’s assignment 1 text in the Forum. Deadline 1 week after this
seminar.

3. Modern period: Marx, Gramsci, Popper, Kuhn and Lakatos

Assignment 3: Are any Modern period theories, ideas, or concepts relevant today? Why? Why not? Do you
see any relevance of Marx’s, Gramsci’s, Popper’s, Kuhn’s and Lakatos’s ideas in relation to your own PhD
26.03.2024
8.00 pm - 11.00 pm studies? Write 2-3 pages (excluding references). Upload in Forum, deadline one day before this seminar.

Peer review 3: Comment on at least one peer’s assignment 1 text in the Forum. Deadline 1 week after this
seminar.
 Assignment 4: Are any Modern period theories, ideas, or concepts relevant today? Why? Why not? Do you
see any relevance of Marx’s, Gramsci’s, Popper’s, Kuhn’s and Lakatos’s ideas in relation to your own PhD
studies? Write 2-3 pages (excluding references). Upload in Forum, deadline one day before this seminar.
09.04.2024 8.00 pm - 11.00 pm
Peer review 4: Comment on at least one peer’s assignment 1 text in the Forum. Deadline 1 week after this
seminar.

5. Final seminar. “Learning from thinkers in the Ancient, Renaissance, Modern and Postmodern time: The
most important ideas, theories and concepts for a) my personal development, and b) my research” - Video
recorded presentation: 10-20 minutes. Upload the video 2 weeks before the final seminar in the Forum.
Each student asks 3 questions related to each video presentation in the Forum one week before the final
seminar; each video presentation/student receives 54 questions (18 students x 3 questions) before the final
seminar.

At the Final seminar, each student has 10 minutes to answer the questions (summarise the questions),
develop deeper answers to selected questions and interact with oral follow-up questions from other
students. Questions not answered in the final seminar will be answered (discussed) in the Forum after the
seminar.

Meeting face to face at NSBM, Sri Lanka: Tuesday 23rd April – time to be decided

Examination
Active participation in all 5 seminars; read literature in advance, posted assignments in advance (except for
the first seminar, assignment 1 is posted after the seminar), oral questions, reflections, comments in the
seminar and/or written questions, reflections, comments in the seminar chat forum.
1. Assignment 1: Ancient period. Written.
2. Assignment 2: Renaissance period. Written.
3. Assignment 3: Modern period. Written.
4. Assignment 4: Postmodern period. Written.
5. Peer review 1: Ancient period. Written.
6. Peer review 2: Renaissance period. Written.
7. Peer review 3: Modern period. Written.
8. Peer review 4: Postmodern period. Written.
9. Final seminar: Video presentation.
10. Final seminar: 3 questions related to each peer video presentation (17) posted in Forum.
11. Final seminar: Summaries and answer questions received in the Forum. Interact with follow up
questions.
Literature
Uyangoda, J (2015). Social research: philosophical and methodological foundations, Social Scientists
Association, Sri Lanka Porta
Porta, DD & Keating M (eds) 2008, Approaches and methodologies in the social sciences-a pluralist
perspective, Cambridge University Press