Problem
Terms: (i) define and (ii) briefly characterise each, and (iii) relate its relevance to one of the main themes raised in Section I of the course.
Term/concept
• aporia
• 'true justified belief'
• rationalism and empiricism
• tacit and explicit knowledge
• scientific realism and anti-scientific realism
• social epistemology
• individualism vs holism
• essentialism
• social constructivism
• logos
• phenomenon
• practical intelligibility
• embodied experience
• hermeneutics
• processual and relational
• representationalism
• seven principles of non-representational theory (NRT)
• five 'forces' of NRT
Task
1. Why is it difficult to determine 'what counts as knowledge' in social science?
2. Identify the ontological and epistemological assumptions (implicit or explicit) that underlie one dichotomous foundational paradigm of social science and explain how they lend themselves to a possible synthesis. Illustrate with an example.
3. What specific role do cultural beliefs and biases play in the creation of 'knowledge' in social science?
4. What is meant by the expression 'social reality'?
5. What is the main concern and focus of hermeneutic phenomenology and in what sense is this approach to social science relevant?
6. What does it mean to speak of 'society'?
7. What are the key criticisms of the concept of 'society'?
8. In what sense, if any, does the contemporary Canadian society approximate 'community' and how?
9. Why is the non-representation approach to social science considered to be an answer to the 'crisis of representation'?
10. What exactly do non-representationalists do?