(in Polish) Philosophy and Social Sciences

elective seminars

The course is devoted to philosophical reading and discussion of classical (and some less canonical) texts in anthropology, history and sociology which have strongly influenced philosophy or carry a considerable philosophical content on their own. We will also try to address the question about the present relations binding philosophy and social sciences.

This year we will focus on the concepts of colonisation/decolonisation as well as populism and identity politics

The course is devoted to philosophical reading and discussion of classical (and some less canonical) texts in anthropology, history and sociology which have strongly influenced philosophy or carry a considerable philosophical content on their own. We will also try to address the question about the present relations binding philosophy and social sciences.

Social sciences, like all other sciences, have constituted their own realm by divorcing philosophy and orienting their research towards the empirical world. Yet philosophical questions continuously re-emerge within this research. Even if the vast majority of contemporary social sciences humbly recognises its own cognitive limits and predominantly descriptive character they still encounter problems of purely theoretical or epistemological nature. We will examine, from philosophical perspective, some fundamental terms and notions organising social scientific research and knowledge such as society, community, agent and actor, event, long lasting, public and private, individuality, class, autonomy, power and legitimacy, capital and social bond, modernisation and historicity. Our research will favour multidisciplinary approach. This year we will focus on the nexus binding the discourses of decolonisation, populism and various forms of identity politics.

Boaventura de Sousa Santos Decolonising the University: The Challenge of Deep Cognitive Justice

Berny Sèbe, Matthew G. Standard Decolonising Europe?: Popular Responses to the End of Empire

M. Mazower Salonica, City of Ghosts

J-P Sartre Preface to Frantz Fanon’s “Wretched of the Earth”

J-F Bayart The Illusion of Cultural Identity

Thomas Picketty, Ideology and Capital

Luc Boltanski Mysteries and Conspiracies: Detective Stories, Spy Novels

Sandro Mezzadra, Border as Method, or, the Multiplication of Labor

Pierre Bourdieu, Firing Back: Against the Tyranny of the Market

Eric Hobsbawm, On Nationalism

Student knows and understands the formative process of social sciences, recognises major founding works of social sciences in given field and appreciates their significance; correctly identifies the main currents and stakes of philosophical debate over social science.

Student is capable of developing his/her own interpretations of the latter and identifies and understands ideological use and abuse of social sciences.

Student has the appreciation for plurality of perspectives; ability of collective work.

Presentations and active participation in reflexion and discussion. In case of student willing to improve proposed grade a paper (up to 2000 words) after prior consulation.

Number of absences: 2 in a semester