Epistemology
Schedule
** modified Sep. 10 **
"PC" = Pollock & Cruz, Contemporary Theories of Knowledge, 2nd edn. (Rowman & Littlefield, 1999)
"SK" = Sosa & Kim, eds., Epistemology: An Anthology (Blackwell, 2000)
| Wed. Sep. 1 | introduction to the course | |
| Fri. Sep. 3 | PC ch. 1, secs. 1-4 Gettier, "Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?" SK pp. 58-59 |
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| Mon. Sep. 6 | Descartes, Meditations I | |
1.
Foundationalism |
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| Wed. Sep. 8 | PC ch. 1, sec. 5 | |
| Fri. Sep. 10 | Descartes, Meditations II-IV | |
| Mon. Sep. 13 | PC ch. 2, secs. 1-3 Chisholm, "The Myth of the Given," SK pp. 107-119 |
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| Wed. Sep. 15 | Chisholm (cont.) | |
| Mon. Sep. 20 | PC ch. 2, sec. 5 BonJour, "Can Empirical Knowledge Have a Foundation?" SK pp. 261-273 ** skip sec. III ** |
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| Wed. Sep. 22 | BonJour (cont.) | |
2.
Coherentism |
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| Mon. Sep. 27 | PC ch. 3, secs. 1-4 Davidson, "A Coherence Theory of Truth and Knowledge," SK pp. 154-163 |
first paper due |
**
6:30 |
"Vanilla Sky" (location TBA) | |
| Wed.
Sep. 29 |
Davidson (cont.) + discuss "Vanilla Sky" |
|
| Mon. Oct. 4 | Haack, "A Foundherentist Theory of Empirical Justification," SK pp. 226-236 | |
| Wed. Oct. 6 | Haack (cont.) | |
| Mon. Oct. 11 | NO CLASS - FALL BREAK | |
3.
Externalism |
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| Wed. Oct. 13 | PC ch. 4, sec. 1 Goldman, "What Is Justified Belief?" SK pp. 340-353 ** skip sec. III ** |
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| Mon. Oct. 18 | PC ch. 4, sec. 4 Lehrer, "Externalism and Epistemology Naturalized," SK pp. 387-400 |
second paper due |
| ** 6:30 |
"Memento" (location TBA) | |
| Wed. Oct. 20 | PC ch. 4, sec. 5 Plantinga, "Warrant: A First Approximation," SK pp. 445-456 + discuss "Memento" |
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4.
Social Epistemology |
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| Mon. Oct. 25 | Brandom, "Knowledge and the Social Articulation of the Space of Reasons," SK pp. 424-432 |
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| Wed. Oct. 27 | Brandom (cont.) | |
| Mon. Nov. 1 | Foley, "Egoism in Epistemology,"
on reserve Hardwig, The Role of Trust in Knowledge," on reserve and available here |
|
| Wed. Nov. 3 | Orwell, 1984, pp. 62-69 & 202-208, on reserve | |
5.
Epistemology and Science |
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| Mon. Nov. 8 | Quine, "Epistemology Naturalized," SK pp. 292-300 | |
| Wed. Nov. 10 | Kim, "What Is 'Naturalized Epistemology'?" SK pp. 301-313 | |
| Fri. Nov. 12 | ** class led by Prof. Joe Cruz (Williams College) ** | |
| Mon. Nov. 15 | PC ch. 6, sec. 4 | |
| Wed. Nov. 17 | ** NO CLASS ** | |
| Fri. Nov. 19 | third paper
due Olin office - by 4:00 |
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| < < < T H A N K S G I V I N G > > > |
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6.
Challenges |
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| Mon. Nov. 29 | Stich, "Reflective Equilibrium, Analytic Epistemology, and the Problem of Cognitive Diversity," SK pp. 571-583 | |
| Wed. Dec. 1 | Code, "Taking Subjectivity into Account," on reserve | |
| Mon. Dec. 6 | Unger, "An Argument for Skepticism," SK pp. 42-52 | |
| Wed. Dec. 8 | semester wrap-up | |
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