Objective

To expose students to the Western, African and Asian philosophical thoughts which have shaped and have the potential to shape social science research and practice. 

Content 

It traces the development of various philosophical points of view about knowledge, sources of knowledge and schools of thought, which is about knowledge generation and research. Among the issues to be discussed are: Nature of science: Theory of science, the scientific enterprise; Theories of knowledge and ideas, ontology (the being of things) and methodology (ways of doing things); sources of knowledge; Selected philosophers in Western thought: e.g. St. Augustine; Plato; John S. Mill, John Locke, Hume, Kant, Berkley; Wiredu, Gyekye; Confucius; Schools of thought which have influenced social science research: e.g. positivism, phenomenology, hermeneutics, existentialism, feminist epistemology, epicurean thought, Marxist thought (socialism), cosmological and ontological arguments, justice; Selected Eastern (Indo-Chinese) thought; and Africa cosmology of life; and ethics in research. Emphasis will be on implications of these thoughts for knowledge generation and for research. 

Mode of delivery

The course will be delivered through lectures, seminars, group discussion, and applied problem solving approach.