212.11 sec. 1 - Research Design: Normative and Interpretive Inquiry (Fall 2026)
Instructor: David Singh Grewal (view instructor's teaching evaluations - degree students only | profile)
View all teaching evaluations for this course - degree students only
Units: 3
Grading Designation: Graded
Mode of Instruction: In-Person
Meeting:
Tu 6:25 PM - 9:05 PM
Location: Law 134
From August 18, 2026
To November 17, 2026
Course End: November 17, 2026
Class Number: 34183
Enrollment info:
Enrolled: 4
Waitlisted: 0
Enroll Limit: 24
As of: 07/22 11:01 AM
The intended audience of this class is graduate students specializing, or otherwise interested in, what may be called “interpretive and normative” methods in history, philosophy, and political, social, and moral theory. The aim of the class is to familiarize those students with at least part of the range of methods available to them, to engage those methods critically, and to understand their metaphysical and political presuppositions and implications.
Readings will be a mix of works by contemporary authors alongside some canonical writings. The course will emphasize the metaphysics of the social world and some of the epistemological consequences of different conceptions of that metaphysics; forms of argument within foundational and applied moral and political philosophy; interpretive issues and methods in the history of political and legal thought; and issues involved in bridging between moral and political philosophy on the one hand, and legal philosophy on the other. Of special interest is the philosophical background to contemporary practice in the social sciences and the way in which what has been called the "linguistic turn” has either been accommodated or avoided in different domains of inquiry.
Topics to be examined will include: hermeneutics and interpretive method, critical theory and social ontology, contextualism in intellectual history, constructivism and reflective equilibrium in moral reasoning, ethnographic and comparative method in political theory, and the epistemological assumptions behind current practices of model-building in social science.
Students will demonstrate their understanding of weekly topics through short reading responses, rotating in-class presentations of the readings, and a final examination. They will emerge from the course with a stronger foundation for writing a dissertation prospectus in domains of normative and interpretive inquiry.
Attendance at the first class is mandatory for all currently enrolled and waitlisted students; any currently enrolled or waitlisted students who are not present on the first day of class (without prior permission of the instructor) will be dropped. The instructor will continue to take attendance throughout the add/drop period and anyone who moves off the waitlist into the class must continue to attend or have prior permission of the instructor in order not to be dropped.
Exam Notes: (F) In-class Final Exam
(Subject to change by faculty member only through the first two weeks of instruction)
Exam Length: 3 hours
Course Category: Jurisprudence and Social Policy (JSP)
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Readers:
No reader.
Books:
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