Social Philosophy
Marne M. Celmar BSDEVCOM IV-A SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY
Social philosophy is the philosophical study of questions about social behavior (typically, of humans). Social philosophy addresses a wide range of subjects, from individual meanings to legitimacy of laws, from the social contract to criteria for revolution, from the functions of everyday actions to the effects of science on culture, from changes in human demographics to the collective order of a wasp's nest. In Social Philosophy the main concepts will be 'property', 'distributive justice' and 'the state'. The purpose of Social Philosophy allows students to critically assess proposed solutions to philosophical problems, initiated by the idea that knowledge and values are relative to a method of investigation, a 'form of life', or design of society. Students will encounter different philosophical positions, giving them the opportunity to experiment with a whole range of new ideas and to use their critical skills in comparing the different positions. Students will gain an understanding of the following concepts: scientific method, positivism, induction, deduction, verification, falsification, corroboration, theory-ladeness of observation, paradigm, anomaly, incommensurability, scientific revolution, scientific relativism, cultural relativism, form of life, hypothetico-deductive explanation, Verstehen, hermeneutics, game theory, prisoner's dilemma, Leviathan, cooperation, culture, sociobiology, evolutionary stable state, leash principle, and determinism.
Social Philosophers: * Socrates
Socrates's contributions to philosophy were a new method of approaching knowledge, a conception of the soul as the seat both of normal waking consciousness and of moral character, and a sense of the universe as purposively mind-ordered. His method, called dialectic, consisted in examining statements by pursuing their implications, on the assumption that if a statement were true it could not lead to false consequences.
Social philosophy is the philosophical study of questions about social behavior (typically, of humans). Social philosophy addresses a wide range of subjects, from individual meanings to legitimacy of laws, from the social contract to criteria for revolution, from the functions of everyday actions to the effects of science on culture, from changes in human demographics to the collective order of a wasp's nest. In Social Philosophy the main concepts will be 'property', 'distributive justice' and 'the state'. The purpose of Social Philosophy allows students to critically assess proposed solutions to philosophical problems, initiated by the idea that knowledge and values are relative to a method of investigation, a 'form of life', or design of society. Students will encounter different philosophical positions, giving them the opportunity to experiment with a whole range of new ideas and to use their critical skills in comparing the different positions. Students will gain an understanding of the following concepts: scientific method, positivism, induction, deduction, verification, falsification, corroboration, theory-ladeness of observation, paradigm, anomaly, incommensurability, scientific revolution, scientific relativism, cultural relativism, form of life, hypothetico-deductive explanation, Verstehen, hermeneutics, game theory, prisoner's dilemma, Leviathan, cooperation, culture, sociobiology, evolutionary stable state, leash principle, and determinism.
Social Philosophers: * Socrates
Socrates's contributions to philosophy were a new method of approaching knowledge, a conception of the soul as the seat both of normal waking consciousness and of moral character, and a sense of the universe as purposively mind-ordered. His method, called dialectic, consisted in examining statements by pursuing their implications, on the assumption that if a statement were true it could not lead to false consequences.