What is Social Science?

This course explores a series of foundational questions concerning the social sciences (e.g., sociology, economics, political science, anthropology, history, and applied fields of education and business). What is social science? Where did it come from and how did it emerge? What topics does it concern? Are social science topics different from topics and subject matter in other fields like the science and the humanities? Are the goals and questions of social science different from that of science and the humanities? How so? What sort of knowledge does social science try to establish? What kinds of methods does it employ? What sorts of disputes persist within the social sciences? What similarities and divisions exist among social scientific fields and why? This course is a graduate level seminar where students are asked to read challenging texts, discuss them, and offer constructive critiques in writing. Advanced undergraduates need instructor permission to register.