开学季！课程大纲《社会学实践的哲学规章》

按：本次推送是吕炳强老师惠赠的本学期课程大纲的文稿。在吕老师给出一些重要术语译名的基础上，小编把course outline摘译了一下。

欢迎诸位老师留言捎信，投稿惠赠您的既前沿又重要的、社会学理论领域的课程大纲！

社会学实践的哲学规章

The Philosophical Code of Sociological Practice

吕炳强（LUI, Ping-keung）

香港中文大学哲学系哲学专业硕士（兼读制）课程

社会学学者——不管他是实在论者还是反实在论者，都是基于他们所信奉（belief）的规章（code）从事研究实践。现代的社会科学哲学（例如所谓的认识论、方法论），正是为这样的研究实践提供了有关规章（the code of practice ）。

这门课，是以社会学作为社会科学的一个案例，聚集20世纪以来的实在论（realisms），包括：假设—推导主义（hypothetico-deductivism）、结构实在论（structural realism）、演绎主义（interpretivism）、机制（mechanism）、以及近来的批判实在论（critical realism）。所有这些都关注经验研究。

当然，还有各种各样的反实在论（anti-realisms），比如经验主义（empiricism）、历史主义（historicism）以及建构主义（constructivism）。 社会学实践的诸规章，正是来自于这双方——实在论与反实在论的“辩护”（arguments ）与“反辩护”（counter-arguments）。

这门课，正是要向诸位描述、分析、比较与对比这些“辩护”与“反辩护”，来呈现一个“社会学的哲学”（ philosophy of sociology）之概览

。在这个概览中，诸位将看到一些哲学议题：因果性（causalities）、推论（inferences）、证实（confirmation ）、解释（explanation），以及行动vs.研究者（he actor versus the researcher）、能动性vs.结构等等；

诸位也将看到一些社会学议题：系统与模型（systems and models,）、机制与汇聚（mechanisms and conjuncture）、事体与属性（entities and properties）、分层与等级（strata and hierarchies）、行动者与互动（actors and interaction）、数据与假设（data and hypotheses）、理论研究纲领（theoretical research programs）等等。

随着这门课的推进，诸位还将看到一种新的“理论社会学”方案（heoretico-sociological proposals）来加入“社会学的哲学”这门阵营。

这个新方案，将允许行动者（actor）拖着一篮子社会实在（social realities），在诠释论（hermeneutics ）与存在论（ontology ）之间穿梭，以致像一个研究者（researcher）一样去观察世界。

这个新方案，将看到社会实在如何隐藏起来，又是如何沉淀下来的，而这将超出实在论与反实在论的想象。

讲课内容

第一部分  诸前说

Part I  Preliminaries

第一讲  科学方法

Lecture 1  Scientific method

第二讲  科学实在论

Lecture 2  Scientific realism

第三讲  科学中的理论与观察

Lecture 3  Theory and observation in science

第四讲  社会学的科学对象

Lecture 4  Scientific objects of sociology

第二部分  社会学实践的诸哲学规章以及解释的诸形式

Part II  The philosophical codes of sociological practice, and forms of sociological explanation

二部甲 实在论

II.A   Selected realisms

第五讲    假设—推导主义与结构实在论──社会解释

Lecture 5  Hypothetico-deductivism and structural realism—social explanation第六讲  假设—推导主义与演绎主义──文化解释

Lecture 6   Hypothetico-deductivism and interpretivism—cultural explanation   

第七讲   假设—推导主义与机制主义──机制解释

Lecture 7    Hypothetico-deductivism and mechanism—mechanistic explanation

第八、第九讲       批判实在论以及机制主义的扩张

Lectures 8. 9   Critical realism, and augumentation of mechanism

二部乙  反实在论

II.B  Selected anti-realisms

第十讲            经验主义、历史主义、建构主义

Lecture 10  Empiricism, historicism and constructivism

第十一讲  库恩的范式

Lecture 11  The paradigm a la Kuhn

结论  

Conclusion

——————————————英文版见下———————————————

The Philosophical Code of Sociological Practice

LUI, Ping-keung

Part-time MA Programme in Philosophy

Department of Philosophy

The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Course Outline

Modern philosophy of social science is distinguished by its emphasis on the code of practice (usually called, off-handedly, epistemology and methodology) for the empirical researcher and the consequences of his practice.

This course, taking sociology as an exemplar of the social science, focuses on the developments in the 20th century and after, beginning with selected realisms, namely, hypothetico-deductivism (abbreviated as HD), structural realism (SR), interpretivism, mechanism, and most recently critical realism (CR). All of them are concerned with empirical research. There are also various anti-realisms, and selected ones are empiricism, historicism and constructivism. The two sides argue heatedly. Codes of sociological practice arise from the arguments and counter-arguments from both sides. They will be described, analyzed, compared and contrasted, resulting in an overview of the philosophy of sociology as it is nowadays.

Lectures will address both philosophical issues (causalities, inferences, confirmation and explanation, the actor versus the researcher, agency versus structure, etc.) and sociological ones (systems and models, mechanisms and conjuncture, entities and properties, strata and hierarchies, actors and interaction, data and hypotheses, theoretical research programs, etc.), with reference to selected texts by representative scholars in each code. Specifically, emphasis will be placed in sociological explanation, which is the defining characteristic of sociological practice.

The empirical researcher practices the code which he believes in. His belief—whether realist or anti-realist—when practiced is a hermeneutics peculiar to himself as an researcher (regardless of whether empirical or otherwise), within which he argues for or against the use data (naturalistic and/or experimental observations) in sociological explanation.

As the course proceeds, some new theoretico-sociological proposals will be offered to the philosophy of sociology. Amongst them, for example, is a discursive trail that allows the actor—who can also be an observer like the researcher—travel from hermeneutics to ontology and back, secreting and depositing along the trail a complex of social realities far beyond the imagination of the realist and the anti-realist.

Time-table

Course Essay

Each student will be required to submit a course essay on a topic based on a paper published in sociological journals (or a published book) selected by himself or herself from a list to be announced later by the lecturer.  There should be no overlap in selection by students, that is, each paper (or book) can only be selected by one and only one student, and hence students should consult among themselves in their selection.

The question to be answered by the student is:

· What is the philosophical code of sociological practice in the paper (or book) you have selected?

The student is supposed to exhibit the knowledge acquired from this course in his analysis and presentation.

To facilitate students in preparing their course essay, each of them will give an oral presentation (power points and other visual aids may be used, time allowed will be announced later) in the class on the outline and the main points of his or her course essay to be written. The lecturer and fellow students will comment on his presentation.

Assessment

The assessment of your performance will be allocated as follows:

· Participation in the class   20%

· Oral presentation  20%

· Course essay  60%

Total100%

 （Sociological理论大缸第27期）