[HPS_EST] APSE Reading Talk & Circle - Anna Alexandrova: Social Science: A Constructivist Account

Dear all, we warmly invite you to the next APSE (Applied Philosophy of Science and Epistemology) talk and Reading Circle. The talk will be held by Anna Alexandrova (University of Cambridge). Talk: When: Thursday, 03.04.2025, 15:00 - 17:00 Where: HS 3A, NIG (Universitätsstraße 7, 1010 Wien) Title & abstract: Social Science: A Constructivist Account What sort of inquiry is social science? This question used to preoccupy philosophers but fell off their agenda due to a stalemate between so-called naturalists, who took the ideal to be natural science, and exceptionalists, who allied social sciences with humanities. I show that both positions commit the error of contrastivism, namely defining social science in contrast to these two traditions, which inevitably ends up caricaturing them. Using recent advances in philosophy, I formulate constructivism about social sciences, a view that denies an essence to this inquiry and grounds it in the needs of communities to understand and improve themselves. Reading Circle: When: right before the talk - Thursday, 03.04.2025, 13:00 - 15:00 Where: same place - HS 3A, NIG (Universitätsstraße 7, 1010 Wien) We will focus our discussion on a forthcoming article by Anna Alexandrova (attached pdf): Alexandrova, Anna. (forthcoming) "Social Science: A Constructivist Account" As introduction to Constructivism, we suggest this article (especially Chapters 1 and 5): Bagnoli, Carla, "Constructivism in Metaethics", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2024 Edition), Edward N. Zalta & Uri Nodelman (eds.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2024/entries/constructivism-metaethics/>. For further reading regarding the topic: Anderson, Elizabeth. "Local Knowledge in Institutional Epistemology." Australasian Philosophical Review (2024): 1-23. Longino, Helen E. (1990). Science as Social Knowledge: Values and Objectivity in Scientific Inquiry. Princeton University Press. Risjord, M. W. (2022). PHILOSOPHY OF SOCIAL SCIENCE : a contemporary introduction. (Second edition.). ROUTLEDGE. Best wishes, Ella Berger and Vinzenz Fischer, on behalf of the APSE team