Sociology & Philosophy

University of Edinburgh

Sociology is a wide ranging and complex discipline that covers everything to do with social behaviour, from the most micro forms of behaviour (such as body language) to large scale processes such as industrialisation or war. It is the study of people, social relationships and how society works. In these sessions, we will introduce you to a range of debates (such as how to understand inequality, or why we live in nations). We will introduce you to the Sociological Imagination which challenges taken-for-granted aspects of life to critical scrutiny and connects personal issues to wider social structures. We will discuss questions such as: what do we mean by society? Why do people act in the ways that they do, and why we present ourselves to others in particular ways?

Philosophy studies a wide variety of questions, some abstract and general: ‘What is knowledge?’ ‘Do properties exist?’; some quite specific: ‘What is the meaning of the word 'the'?’; and some practical: ‘How should we lead our lives?’ In the Philosophy programme, you'll be hearing and thinking about questions like these, giving you a sense of what it is like to study Philosophy. You will attend four lectures from Philosophy staff, each followed by a small-group discussion between you, your course-mates, and a tutor. In the group project, you will go into more details on a particular topic and create a poster about it.

22 June 2020 - 27 June 2020

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