400018 SE Philosophy of Science: Understanding Knowledge, Applying Methods, Being a Researcher (2024S)

The history and philosophy of science does not have an exciting ring to most PhD students. It sounds like dry and abstract musings that are best left in the introductory parts of books and lectures aimed at bachelor and master students. History and philosophy promise little of interest let alone practical relevance to someone doing a PhD.
This is clearly false, obviously. And in this course, we will try to prove it. We will engage with crucial questions that have been or are currently debated in the philosophy, history and social studies of science, but that also have key relevance for how PhD students (or anyone else in the social science) produce knowledge.
Is it the aim of your work to describe or to change social reality? What is the relation of your own background and values to your research and outcomes? How can we produce generalizable knowledge and what are our limits of generalizability? What is good knowledge in the social sciences? What does it mean to be a professional social scientist in different contexts, including the public debate? How does the social and institutional organisation of science influence our careers? In sum, how do we produce knowledge?
We will explore these topics by reading and discussing texts, through inputs by the seminar teachers, short summaries of the readings by students, and most of all in engaging with your work and your perspectives. Each session will be guided either by Max or by Tobias. Throughout the semester, each student will give a short summary of one of the papers we discuss. The different disciplinary backgrounds of everyone will enrich our discussions and ultimately understanding of the social sciences.

Semester plan (topic descriptions are still broad and will be specified)

1. Introduction and Information
Introduction round, motivation, background
Information on the course, the respective topics, and the administration
Short presentation of each dissertation project

2. Why social sciences?
What is the aim of the social sciences?
How has this question been answered in the past?

3. Is: How do the social sciences relate to reality?
Descriptive perspective: Society and the broader world
Positivism and Falsification (Popper, Bacon)
Paradigm (Kuhn) & research program (Lakatos)
Ludwik Fleck, Karl Popper, Thomas Kuhn, Imre Lakatos
Generalizability: External validity, specific use cases and transfer

4. Ought: Science and Human Values - an eternal debate
Normative perspective: What’s the role of values and value judgements in research?
Relevance, concern and motivation vs. neutrality and openneness
Max Weber, Feminist Epistemology, current discussions on expertise
Intervention: Changing society

5. Theory building
Logic, syllogism, dialectic
Strategic ambiguity vs. formalization
Relations to research writing, style, and prose

6. Quantitative statistics and other crimes
Frequentist vs. Bayesian statistics
Understanding the p-value
Inference: Hypothesis testing vs. measurement

7. Qualitative research
Exploring the space of possibilities
Enriching understanding
Probing causality
Generalisation vs. hypothesis creation
Abduction

8. Open Science
Replication Crisis
Openness as a general value (Merton)
Implementing open science practices
Open Science: good or bad for your career?

9. Being a Scientist: Individual perspective
Building a career: Creating knowledge vs. optimizing success
Incentives, Publish or Perish, …
How do evaluation logics influence the way we produce knowledge?
Time-Management or “I have no time to read books”
Work-Life Balance

10. Being a Scientist: Public perspective
The public roles of social scientists
Expertise and the public understanding of science
Outreach: Using social media as a researcher

11. Open Space
You decide
Reading of suggested literature
Discussion of open questions, specific problems