Overview

The Epistemology of the Humanities and Social Sciences doctoral programme at University of Ljubljana pays special attention to the relationship among theories which seems typical of the humanities and social sciences: even though theories are often in a relationship of mutually exclusive alternatives (and are considered as such even more often), no theory in these disciplines is ever really "out-of-date." This draws attention to the typical conflicts between "orthodoxy" and "revisionism." 

One of the most interesting parts of the theoretical work in the humanities and social sciences is the transfer of concepts from one sphere of enquiry to another: arguably the best known is the massive inflow of linguistic concepts in various structuralist theories. Even though it would be naive to say that theoretical concepts belong to an "original domain," their transfer from one sphere to another entails specific problems and issues.

The doctoral programme deals with the specific exterior character of theories, their exclusions, ambiguities, sometimes even ideological effects, critical interpretations of the differentiation between humanities and social sciences, and their internal separation into various sciences. It studies the role of institutional boundaries and analyses their (often overlooked) epistemic implications. It also studies the effects of the isolation of individual sciences, the experience gained from attempts at linking and articulation, the effects of introducing new classifications and new sciences or additional specialisations, and so on.