This course considers the status of linguistics as a scientific field of inquiry. Methodological approaches and the type of information that serve as data in linguistics are surveyed and placed in the context of other social science methodology and data. Throughout the course, the practice of linguistics as the science of language, its successes and weaknesses, are placed in the context of thought on the philosophy of science. Students design and carry out projects using subject methodologies (introspection, corpus, statistical, fieldwork, experimental).