CISO - Social Sciences

This course deals with the science as a fashion of knowledge, its main philosophical problems and its implications in the development of present-day society. Within these problems, it emphasizes of the issues related to the origin, nature and the role of the so-called social sciences as a fashion of human knowledge. All these issues are studied by integrating the contributions of philosophy, history and sociology, as well as other important disciplines, without overlooking al the critical aspects of science and scientific culture, we offer a more balanced version of this social phenomenon, where its contributions may not be underestimated. Our University pursues to depict science and its history as a very particular social production that plays an important role in modern world, by acknowledging its role in the making of this fashion of society. A true study of these affirmations must place the analyses within the social and cultural contexts that allow for the development of the scientific know-how.

This program offers an insight to Colombia´s XX century, where we can see the different elements that, in different periods, have shaped the structure and functioning of the political order by taking into account the always-changing scenario of economic activity and its effects on social organization. The content of each program has been divided from the political history, in each program we will go over three general aspects: politics, economics and social movements. It is about attaining an approach where at least three components making part of the development of society may be integrated.

The so-called Critical Theory developed by authors such as: T.Adorno, M.Horkkeim and H.Marcase, is based on Marx´s thoughts on historical materialism, and on the assumptions of Freud´s Culture Theory on its psychological aspects. This combination of conceptual perceptions allowed for the arrival of the Theory of Critique of the Society and the Individual built by authors from the renowned Frankfurt school. This course intends to approach to the theoretical developments studied by some representative thinkers from The School of Frankfurt in order to further enrich the students´ perspectives on the complexity of current social sciences.

This is an introductory course to Social Sciences that allow students to study the main conceptions of society and its different approaches, as well as the main debates of present-day social theory, from the liberal, Marxist, structuralist, functionalist, post-structuralist, rational and institutionalist, among many other. It seeks to create the political and sociological criteria in the students to analyze the political phenomenon. This will be conducted through a series of debates on social theory and modern politics. The debate goes around the confrontation of three important trends: a) the trend that regards social phenomenon as the product of structural relations, b) the trend that considers them to be the result of beliefs, preferences, actions and choices made by individuals, and c) the trend that intends to integrate the elements from the two aforementioned trends. We will also study whether the debate should be focused on social sciences, or whether the social order is necessary or not, or whether social dynamics means integration or conflict.