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Course Description
This course is an advanced introduction to epistemology. Epistemology is the area of philosophy concerned with articulating the necessary and sufficient conditions for knowledge. In this course, we will study three issues for the traditional analysis of knowledge: Pyrrhonian skepticism, academic skepticism, and the social element of epistemology. We will engage with primary material foundational to epistemology by philosophers such as Plato, Sextus Empiricus, Audi, BonJour, Zagzebski, James, Sosa, Code, and more.
Course Texts
- Readings on electronic reserve.
- Weston, Anthony. A Rulebook for Arguments, 4th. ed. (Hackett, 2009).
Course Requirements
| Requirement | Description | Weight | Date |
| Midterm | One midterm test on the material covered from weeks one to five (inclusive). | 15% | 08 Oct |
| Essay | One essay developed in three stages over the course of the term. | 50% | See description |
| Participation | Assessed on the quality and quantity of participation. | 10% | See description |
| Final Examination | One sit-down cumulative examination. | 25% | See WebAdvisor |
Course Schedule
| Week | Topic | Readings | ||
| 1 | “Welcome” | Tues | No class; no readings. | |
| Thurs | Syllabus | |||
| 2 | “The Traditional Analysis and the Regress Argument” | Tues | Plato, Meno (97a-end) & Thaetetus (pp.402-9) | |
| Thurs | Sextus Empiricus, Outlines of Pyrrhonism (Book 1 (pp. 81-8)) | |||
| 3 | “Foundationalism” | Tues | Audi, R. “Psychological Foundationalism,” parts I and II | |
| Thurs | “”, part III onward. | |||
| 4 | “Coherentism” | Tues | BonJour, L. “The Coherence Theory of Empirical Knowledge”, parts I and II | |
| Thurs | “”, part III. | |||
| Proposal due on 30 Sept | ||||
| 5 | “Infinitism and Midterm” | Tues | Klein, P. “Human Knowledge and the Infinite Regress of Reasons” | |
| Thurs | Midterm; no readings. | |||
| Midterm on 08 Oct | ||||
| 6 | “Hyperbolic Doubt” | Tues | Fall Study Day; no class or readings. | |
| Thurs | Descartes, R. Meditations I & II | |||
| 7 | “Reliabilism” | Tues | Alston, W. “How to Think about Reliability” | |
| Thurs | ||||
| 8 | “Virtue Epistemology” | Tues | Zagzebski, L. Virtues of the Mind (selections) | |
| Thurs | ||||
| Prospectus due on 30 Oct | ||||
| 9 | “Contextualism” | Tues | Dretske, F. “The Pragmatic Dimension of Knowledge” | |
| Thurs | ||||
| 10 | “Ethical Belief” | Tues | Clifford, W. “The Ethics of Belief” | |
| Thurs | James, W. “The Will to Believe” | |||
| 11 | “Evidence” | Tues | Code, L. “Taking Subjectivity Into Account” | |
| Thurs | Goodman, N. “The New Riddle of Induction” | |||
| 12 | “Reasonable Disagreement” | Tues | Feldman, R. “Reasonable Religious Disagreements” | |
| Thurs | Elga, A. “Reflection and Disagreement” | |||
| 13 | “Truth and Bullshit” | Tues | Elgin, C. “True Enough” | |
| Thurs | Frankfurt, H. “On Bullshit” | |||
| Paper due on 30 Nov | ||||
| Legend | ||
| Unit One:
Pyrrhonian skepticism |
Unit Two:
Academic skepticism |
Unit Three:
Social epistemology |
