PI489: Epistemology and Global Politics

Course facts

Credits

3 (3-0-6)

Usually taken in

Year 3 to 4

Prerequisite

No prerequisites

Recommended term

Not fixed in the recommended plan

Plan when to take it →

Instructor

• Iain Cowie

From the Faculty of Political Science staff directory. Teaching assignments can vary by term.

Course description

Global politics is greatly complicated. The extent to which one can grasp such complication depends upon one’s ability to read those globally political phenomena. One’s ability, in turn, depends upon one’s conceptual, theoretical, or epistemological strategies used in reading those phenomena. This course mainly focuses on epistemology. It is a branch of philosophy and its basic question is: How do we know that which we claim to know? The course explores five sets of epistemologies popularly employed in constructing knowledge in social sciences or humanities. They are empiricism/positivism, phenomenology, hermeneutics, structuralism, and poststructuralism. In order to ensure students’ ability to adequately comprehend the course’s content, both theoretical lecture and application exercise are the pedagogical modes. In the process, students are encouraged to use all kinds of media: image (still or moving), text, and music etc., as case studies for their applications.

How it's assessed

BIRSA has not recorded how this course is assessed yet. Ask the BIR office before you register.

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