PHIL 300: Epistemology

We will examine basic questions about the nature, source(s), and extent of human knowledge. We do so by focusing on the topics of skepticism, (epistemic) justification, truth, belief, certainty, the a priori/a posteriori distinction, and the analysis of knowledge--including the related Gettier Problem.

Texts:

•     Human Knowledge: Classical and Contemporary Approaches. (3rd ed.) Moser and vander Nat, eds., Oxford University Press.

•     The Philosopher's Dictionary. (2nd ed.) Robert Martin.

Requirements:

Four of five pop-quizzes (20pts); two exams: mid-term (20pts) and final (20 pts); and two presentations (20 pts per presentation)  based on selections from Part II below. The presentations will be based on papers submitted one day in advance of the presentation.

Contents:

Part I: "Classical" Sources: (Covered by lecture-discussions)

•     Selections from Plato's Meno, Phaedo, Republic, and Theaetetus.

•     Selections from Aristotle's Posterior Analytics and De Anima.

•     Selections from Sextus Empiricus’ Outlines of Pyrrhonism.

•     Selections from Augustine’s Contra Academicos and De Civitas Dei.

•     Selections from Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae.

•     Selections from Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy.

•     Selections from Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding.

•     Selections from Leibniz’s New Essays on the Human Understanding.

•     Selections from Berkeley’s A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge.

•     Selections from Hume’s An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding.

•     Selections from Kant’s Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics.

Part II: "Contemporary” Sources: (Covered by in-class presentations)

•      Russell's "Appearance, Reality, and Knowledge by Acquaintance."

•     Lewis’ “The Pragmatic Element in Knowledge.”

•     Quine's "Two Dogmas of Empiricism."

•     Gettier's "Is Justified True Belief Knowledge."

•     Feldman’s “An Alleged Defect in Gettier Counter-Examples”

•     Pollack’s “The Gettier Problem”

•     Lewis’ “A Pragmatic Conception of the A Priori”

•     Chisholm’s “The Truths of Reason”

•     Kripke’s “A Priori Knowledge, Necessity, and Contingency”

•     Alston’s “Concepts of Epistemic Justification”

•     Sosa’s “The Raft and the Pyramid”

•     Moore's "Proof of an External World.”

•     Sosa’s “How to Defeat Opposition to Moore” (Link to a nice assortment of online papers by Ernest Sosa--Lawrence's 2002 Steven's Lecturer.)

G.E. Moore

Roderick M. Chisholm

Edmund L. Gettier, III

 

Ernest Sosa