This document outlines the course details for a Philosophy of Science in Political Science course taking place from April to May 2014. The course will examine the relationship between philosophy of science and political science over 8 sessions. Topics will include the nature of science, inductive and deductive reasoning, theories of falsification and relativism, concepts of observation and theory, and the role of values in political science. Students will complete short written assignments after each session connecting the philosophical issues to political science. A final exam will be administered on the last day.

1. Institute of International Studies,
Ramkamhaeng University (IIS-RU)
POL 6000: PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE IN POLITICAL SCIENCE
9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. April 4-5, 18-19, 25-26, May 2-3, 2014, RU Printing Press Building
Instructor: Dr. Giuseppe Mario Saccone
E-mail: gmsaccon@gmail.com, gmsaccon@graduate.hku.hk
Tel: 087613-1059
Course textbook
Anthony O’Hear, An introduction to the philosophy of science, Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-19-824813-X; 9 780198 248132
Anthologies on Philosophy of Science (but not textbooks)
Philosophy of Science: Contemporary readings, Edited by Yuri Balashov and Alex
Rosenberg, London: Routledge, 2002. ISBN 0-415-25782-4; 9 780415257824
Philosophy of Science: the central issues, Edited by Martin Curd and J. A. Cover,
New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1998. IBN 0-393-97175-9
Suggested Readings (not textbooks)
Patrick J. Hurley, A Concise Introduction to Logic. 8th
ed. Wadsworth, Thomson
Learning: Belmont Ca, 2003. ISBN 0-534-58482-9
John Losee, A Historical Introduction to the Philosophy of Science, Fourth Edition,
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1972-2001 ISBN 0-19-870055-5; 9 780198 700555
M. Neil Browne, Stuart M. Keeley, Asking the right questions: a guide to critical
thinking. 6th
ed. Prentice-Hall, Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River: New Jersey,
2001. ISBN 0-13-089134-7;
David Stewart, H. Gene Blocker, Fundamentals of Philosophy, Third Edition, New
York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1992. ISBN 0-02-417340-1
John Perry, Michael Bratman (eds.), Introduction to Philosophy: Classical and
contemporary readings, Third Edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. ISBN
0-19-511204-0
Robert Klee, Introduction to the Philosophy of Science: Cutting Nature at its seams,
New York: Oxford University Press, 1997 ISBN 0-19-510610 0-19-510611-3
Rudolf Carnap, Introduction to Symbolic Logic and its Applications, Dover
Publications: New York, 1958. ISBN 0-486-60453-5
Alex Rosenberg, Philosophy of Science: A contemporary introduction, London:
Routledge, 2000. ISBN 0-415-15281-x; 9 780415 152815
George Couvalis, The Philosophy of Science: Science and Objectivity, London: Sage
Publications, 1997. ISBN 0-7619-5101-6; 9 780761951018
Michael G. Roskin, Robert L. Cord, James A. Medeiros, Walter S. Jones, Political
Science: An Introduction, 9th
Edition, New Jersey: Pearson Education, 2006. ISBN
0-13-099134-1 9 780130991348
Course description
This course examines the meanings and sources of the philosophy of science and the
relationship between philosophy of science and political science. An emphasis will be
given to such fundamental issues of philosophy of science as concepts, facts,
hypothesis, theories, and laws.
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2. Schedule of lecturing, readings and assignments (some changes are possible during
the course):
Session 1, Saturday April 4
(a) We will begin with an introduction to the course and general guidelines for the
assignments. What is Philosophy of Science? What does it mean? What are its
sources? We will examine the nature of philosophy and the nature of science. We will
read from Anthony O’Hear, An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science (from now
on referred to as ibid), pp.1-11.
Session 2, Sunday April 5:
The second section will introduce some basic notions of logic: Deductive and
Inductive arguments, validity and soundness. We will focus on how scientists arrive at
their explanations about the world, i.e., on the inductive method. The students will be
able to refer to the chapter on Induction in the textbook, ibid, pp.12-34. The first
assignment will be about how inductively strong (i.e., cogent) arguments are to be
constructed in Political Science.
Session 3, Saturday April 18: In the third section, we will examine the debate about
other and alternative scientific methods with a focus on the Popperian Philosophy of
Science which stresses the role of Falsification in the construction of scientific
theories. Students can find reference to this debate in Ibid, pp.35-53. The topic for the
assignment will be: Explain how Popperian falsification is supposed to differ from
Bacon’s inductive method.
At this stage, participants to the course are also expected to choose a topic within
Philosophy of Science for an in class presentation to be delivered the following week.
Session 4, Sunday April 19:
(a) We will dedicate some time to Students’ Presentations and hopefully to sharing
some ideas about how scientific knowledge in Social Sciences and current issues
ought to be advanced. The presentations should also bring to the forefront the wide-
ranging issue of what distinguishes the scientific approach to problem solving from
other methods. Accordingly, in this session, we will examine how Science can be
distinguished from non-science. The students will be able to find reference to this
debate in: Ibid, pp.54-81. Possible topics of assignment will be:
What do you think of Popper’s distinction between Science and non-science? Do you
agree with him or not, and to what extent and why?
What do you think of Kuhn’s scientific relativism? Do you think it provides a more
accurate picture of the workings of science than Popper’s falsificationism?
Which one between Popper’s falsificationism and Kuhn’s relativism offers a more
relevant method to the concerns of Political Science?
Session 5 Saturday April 25:
Review of the role of Concepts, Facts, Theories and Laws in Philosophy of Science
with some in depth analysis of their meanings and their applications in Scientific
Realism, Anti-Realism and Baysianism. We will refer to the chapters in the textbook
on: “Observation and theory” in ibid, pp.82-105; Scientific Realism, pp.106-143;
Probability, pp.144-176. The topic for the assignment will be: Can we at all
distinguish between observation and theory in Political Science? What are the
problems involved and the relative consequences?
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3. Session 6 Sunday April 26
Our sixth session will deal with examining the debate over Reductionism, as
advocated by Positivism, in Philosophy of Science.
The role of Scientific Reductions in the Philosophy of Science is discussed in Ibid,
pp.177-201. We will also draw our attention on the possible applications of
Reductionism in Political Science, and on discussing whether or not these applications
are always desirable.
Possible topics for assignment and/or further discussion include: Is it possible or
desirable to reduce the epistemic gap between Natural Sciences and Social Sciences?
Is the idea of developing a “Science of Politics” a viable proposition?
Session 7 Saturday May 2
The subject of the seventh session is Science and Culture and the role of Philosophy
of Science in Political Science. The students can find some general insights into this
vast topic in: ibid, pp.202-232.
The purpose of this session (and arguably one of the aims of the course itself) is to
explore how to address the epistemic challenges to Political Science. In other words,
it could be argued that it is auspiciously desirable that Political Philosophy, with valid
or sound support from scientific knowledge helps us develop new perspectives in
order to deepen our knowledge of the complex and so far only partially explained
relation between facts and values, that is to say, between the theoretically descriptive
(i.e., the primary concern of science itself) and the normative or evaluative in political
science. Ideally, this should also help us find the answer to the vexing question of
whether an ethical politics is morally and scientifically possible.
One possible assignment for this section will be:
Explore the implication of the complex relation between facts and values. Explain, by
making use of what you have learned so far about Philosophy of Science, why some
essential political terminology such as ‘capitalism’, ‘socialism’ and ‘democracy’
refers to essentially contested concepts – meaning that no neutral or settled definition
can ever be developed for them.
Session 8 Sunday May 3
Final Exam
(Provisional and subject to change) The Students will be asked to answer to three
questions relating to the content of the course.
Grading Scale (As for Graduate Level):
A = 4.00 Excellent
A-= 3.67 Almost Excellent
B+= 3.33 Very Good
B = 3.00 Good
B- = 2.67 Fairly Good
C+= 2.33 Almost Good
C = 2.00 Fair
C- = 1.67 Almost Fair
D = 1.00 Poor
F = 0.00 Fail
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4. Assignments:
A total of 8 Assignments, one for each session: 7 essays of about 500 words each, one
oral presentation and one final exam paper.
Provisional list of other topics for assignments concerning the relationship
between Philosophy of Science and Political Science (others may be added during
the course)
- What is the relation between philosophy of science and political science?
- Explain the role of concepts, facts, theories and laws in Philosophy of Science and in
Political Science.
- In political science is theory separate from practice?
- Can political science be a value-free mirror of politics, or are value and fact linked?
Class Participation
For Master’s degree students, students will need to attend more than 80% of the class
hours. If students attend the class in between 50% - 80% of the class hours then it
should result in the incomplete grade. Class active participation and attendance are
required.
Academic misconduct and plagiarism
Academic misconduct and plagiarism will be dealt with according to the regulations.
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