The lecture course provides an introduction to fundamental methodological concepts of work in the sciences with special reference to the humanities, and also treats the formation of theory; it approaches the theme by way of history of science and history of disciplines.The guiding questions are: Since when have there been sciences of Geist or textual sciences at all? What is their sense of honour, their goal, their idea of precision? How do they define what makes them “scientific”, as distinct from the natural and social sciences (or in an attempt to approach them)? What role does technology play in the research paradigm of the humanities and how does digitalization change methodology in the humanities? Are the Geisteswissenschaften now being transformed into digital humanities?
In the course of the lectures, concepts such as “philology”, “dialectics”, “hermeneutics”, phenomenology”, “discourse analysis”, and also “Geist”, “society”, “medium” shall be discussed, the question of “empirical knowledge” and the relationship to quantifying procedures shall be treated. The role of digital tools shall be explored in the context of the general summary.
- Lehrende: Petra Gehring