Philosophy of Science & Knowledge Development

Catalog description

This course is designed to provide new doctoral students with an introduction to the philosophical foundations of scientific research within the social work field, and with some of the general intellectual tools they will need to be effective participants and leaders in our field's theoretical and intellectual dialogue. There will also be an initial segment focusing on the conceptual foundations of social work as a profession. Philosophy of science enters into our work as intellectual leaders in the clinical-research domain in three ways. First, philosophy of science addresses fundamental general issues concerning the nature of knowledge, the evaluation of research, and preferable research methodologies across the sciences, and how to reason scientifically. Second, within social work itself, the debates in philosophy of science have found expression in specific disputes and divisions among social work researchers that can only be understood in the context of philosophy of science. And third, philosophy of science, in addressing the nature of theory change and rational assessment of beliefs, can be construed as indirectly addressing a perennial question in clinical theory: how can the therapist come to understand the client's theory of the world, by what evidence (or other processes) is the client's theory of the world maintained, and by what techniques might this theory be changed? In the course of these sessions, we will attempt to consider all three of these facets or levels of the interaction of philosophy of science with clinical research.