Course summary

Anthropology, economics, geography, political science, sociology – you already know what the social sciences are. But how do they work? What makes them special? There are clear senses in which they differ from some of the natural sciences, such as their extremely diverse set of methods and analytic techniques, but does this make the social sciences any less scientific or objective? With LSE widely recognised as the world’s leading specialist social science university, the MSc Philosophy of the Social Sciences is the ideal degree with which to pursue questions about human societies, and to apply philosophical reasoning to understanding the nature of the social sciences themselves. This programme offers a critical examination of the conceptual and methodological issues underlying social scientific research. The Department's strength in philosophy of economics and rational choice theory makes it the ideal environment in which to study, examine and critique the use of these methods within the social sciences.