這堂名為政治學方法論的課程，實際上不限於政治學，而是涉及了社會科學知識探索所可能涉及的實證主義、實存主義、詮釋主義和實用主義等四種知識論。透過了解政治學/社會科學中四種知識論版塊的分佈與區隔，對於了解政治學各次領域、不同研究議題與跨領域研究議題與方法可能涉及的知識論差異、矛盾甚至衝突，對於在抽象哲學層面了解方法論與其背後對於「知識」概念認知以及追求知識方法、社會科學不同領域的學科典範相當有助益。本年度課程採取小班制，以每週閱讀文本為基礎並在課堂上延伸思考討論，適合對自己適合的研究問題與方法有所困惑，又積極想找尋自己所偏向、或釐清自己不同階段適合的知識論與適研究方法技巧的人，不僅能培養從知識論的視角理解學界的各類文獻，也能從閱讀文獻和與老師討論的過程中更清晰自己未來走上學術路上的定位。

Methodology is about what how we gain knolwdge, a tool by which we evaluate questions we ask, the methods we use, and knowledge we acquire. We will focus on reasons of doing research and help you look beyond current scope of research. Students will be guided to think widely at the discipline level by overview the major debates or controversies in the discipline. We will also evaluate some examples that may or may not advance our knowledge regarding our political life. While its reading load is heavier than other master-level courses, this course will focus more on intellectual discussion about current research in the field than on readings itself. To be more systematically formulate the flow of our discussion, the following subjects will be introduced in class, each of which will take about two weeks of reading and discussion. Note that these topics and relavent readings are introduced only for discussion purpose. We may introduce new topics and readings or modify the reading list as the semester goes.