Your government has introduced a plan to address record-breaking rates of traffic tickets and deadly hovercar accidents. They propose assigning “driver credit scores” to every citizen, but would need to install cameras and microphones in...

We often find ourselves stuck in narrow social circles with similar people. What habits confine us, and how can we break them? Organizational psychologist Tanya Menon considers how we can be more intentional about expanding our social...

Actor Thandie Newton tells the story of finding her "otherness" -- first, as a child growing up in two distinct cultures, and then as an actor playing with many different selves. A warm, wise talk, fresh from stage at TEDGlobal 2011.

Last week we introduced the idea of socialization and today we’re talking a little more about how it works, including an introduction to five main types of socialization. We’ll explore anticipatory socialization from your family, the...

What puts the “science” in social science? Today we’ll explore positivist sociology and how sociologists use empirical evidence to explore questions about the social world. We’ll also introduce two alternatives: interpretative sociology...

This week we introduce sociology’s three major theoretical paradigms, and some of the advantages and disadvantages of each paradigm.

This video is about Jenny Saville's self-portrait "Propped", but it's also about art history. It's about philosophy. It's about the role art plays in representation and cultural narratives. It's about a lot of stuff.

Four experts from different backgrounds give their candid perspectives on how social science research should be improved. Featured are: political scientist Mark Bevir (UC Berkeley), philosopher Brian Epstein (Tufts University), historian...

This video is about the sculpture Typewriter Eraser, Scale X by Claus Oldenburg and Coosje Van Bruggen and influenced by Thing Theory by Bill Brown. It's also about Oldenburg's soft sculptures. <br/>

Philosopher Brian Epstein (Tufts University) gives examples of social facts that depend on nothing particularly human at all.

Philosopher Brian Epstein (Tufts) describes how important research avenues are being overlooked by social scientists.

Tufts University philosopher Brian Epstein relates how, by making false assumptions about the nature of the social world, most social scientists are running a serious risk of squandering the impressive model-building possibilities that...

Philosopher Brian Epstein (Tufts University) describes the tensions between the field of philosophy of language and metaphysics.

Tufts University philosopher Brian Epstein describes how many people’s perspectives on the social world are prejudiced by a hidden assumption that he takes issue with, and uses the example of The Supreme Court to illustrate his point.

Philosopher Brian Epstein (Tufts University) discusses how many sociologists and anthropologists need to move more beyond anthropocentrism to make better models of the social world.

Philosopher Brian Epstein (Tufts University) relates his concern that many agent-based models are based on a flawed assumption of what the social world actually consists of.

Philosopher Brian Epstein (Tufts University) argues that the social world cannot be explained through individuals alone.

Philosopher Brian Epstein (Tufts University) relates how he became interested in the study of the social world.

Philosopher Brian Epstein (Tufts University) explains how his grounding and anchoring model of social ontology works.

Professor Smithin argues that new economic thinking is not only about new thinking but also about recovering past knowledge from past crises. He talks about the policy response from the 2008 crisis compared to the 1930s. Most crucially,...

This four-square model explains the dominant ways to approach studies in organizations and many other social scientific fields.

What is Communication? It's difficult to find a "perfect" definition but we'll define it, look at examples, areas in the field of communication studies, and some basic communication models to explain the meaning of "communication" and...

This is the first episode of Season 1. I discuss some history behind Shakespeare's plays Measure for Measure and give you some big ideas and themes to look out for. Next week, and in the next episode, I will discuss Act 1 in detail with...

Analysis of Shakespeare's play Measure for Measure pre-reading context