Curricular Unit:Code:
Introduction to Social Sciences783ICS
Year:Level:Course:Credits:
1UndergraduatePsychology6 ects
Learning Period:Language of Instruction:Total Hours:
Winter SemesterPortuguese/English78
Learning Outcomes of the Curricular Unit:
1. Provide students with knowledge about the epistemological and conceptual foundations of Science;
2. Provide students with knowledge about the scientific method and its variants;
3. To provide students with knowledge of the different paradigms of Science and Social Sciences;
4. To enable students to reflect and understand the plurality of social sciences and their place in science:
5. To enable students to reflect and understand the political dimension of Science and Social Sciences;
6. To enable students to assess / judge the pertinence of the various theoretical perspectives of the Social Sciences for the understanding and interpretation of social reality;
7. o enable students to reflect and understand the dual structure / agency, as well as for the practical application of this to the analysis of social reality.
Syllabus:
1. The historical construction of Social Sciences
Popular knowledge.
Religious knowledge
Philosophical knowledge
Scientific knowledge
2. The epistemology and Science.
The ethical basis of science
The values of Science
3. The scientific method
The concept and the different methods
4. Natural sciences vs Social sciences
5. From theory to empirical reality
Theory, hypotheses, concepts and their operationalization
6. The various Social Sciences
7. The duality structure/agency
Perspectives focused on social structure
Perspectives focused on agency.
8. The confluence of the two perspectives.
Demonstration of the Syllabus Coherence with the Curricular Unit's Objectives:
Points 1 and 2 will provide knowledge about the history of scientific thought, about the different types of knowledge and about the scientific criteria.
Points 3 and 5 will provide knowledge about the fundamentals of the scientific method.

Points 4 and 6 focus on the discussion around Science and the various Social Sciences. Will thus present the different paradigms that frame the Science and Social Sciences, at their plurality and their particularism, as well as its political and ideological dimension.
Point 7 will present the theoretical perspectives that give more importance to the structure and to the agency. Thus enable students to theoretical reflection on the duality structure / agency and its practical application to the study of society.
Teaching Methodologies (Including Evaluation):
Expositive method and active method.
Theoretical exposition of the syllabus which will give students the knowledge and skills for later relfection and discussion on the issues.
2 tests and performance in class.
Demonstration of the Coherence between the Teaching Methodologies and the Learning Outcomes:
The use of the lecture method is the best teaching to give students the knowledge referred to in the objectives of the course form. Further understanding and critical reflection of students will be stimulated by the use of active method. For this students will be asked to participate in discussion of topics covered in the course program.
Reading:
Aron, R. (1994). As etapas do Pensamento Sociológico. Lisboa: Edições D. Quixote. (biblioteca)
Baert, P. & Silva, F. (2015). Teoria Social Contemporânea. Lisboa: Mundos Sociais.
Binimmelis, H. & Roldan-Tonioni, A. (2017). Society epistemology and methodology in Boaventura de Sousa Santos. Convergencia. Revista de Ciências Sociales, 75, 215-235. (b-on)
Giddens, A. (2008). Sociology. Cambridge: Polity Press. (biblioteca)
Kvasz, L. (2014). Kuhn’s Structure of Scientific Revolutions between sociology and epistemology. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 46, 78-84. (b-on)
Santos, B. (1999). Um Discurso sobre as Ciências. Porto: Edições Afrontamento. (Biblioteca)