PH2243: Epistemology
Course Overview: This course will be divided into four units:
Unit 1: Skepticism. What – if anything – can we know about the world? This question can seem puzzling. On the one hand, we take ourselves to know many things: e.g., that the earth rotates around the sun, that Kuala Lumpur is the capital of Malaysia, that the earth is more than 1,000 years old, etc. On the other hand, there are seemingly powerful skeptical arguments – arguments that purport to show that virtually none of these claims can qualify as knowledge. We’ll investigate this puzzle in depth, looking at some of the leading attempts to rebut the skeptic’s argument.
Unit 2: What is Knowledge? The skeptic claims that we know nothing (or at least very little). But what is knowledge, anyway? In this unit we’ll take a closer look at the question. We’ll start with the traditional analysis of knowledge as justified true belief, and then look at a famous problem for this analysis – the so-called “Gettier problem”. We’ll then consider various attempts to provide a better analysis of knowledge – one that solves the Gettier problem. Along the way, we’ll discuss how these analyses relate to the skeptical arguments in Unit 1; we’ll also discuss whether we should expect there to be an analysis of knowledge in the first place.
Unit 3: What is Justification? In addition to asking whether a belief amounts to knowledge, we can also ask whether that belief is justified. Indeed, some philosophers have thought that the right response to the puzzles presented in Units 1 and 2 is to dismiss knowledge as unimportant and to focus on justification instead. In this unit, we’ll look at two leading theories of justification: evidentialism and reliabilism. We’ll discuss the arguments for each, as well as their associated problems.
Unit 4: The Epistemology of Graded Belief Beliefs come in degrees: I am more confident that it will rain in the next 10 years than that it will rain tomorrow. So in addition to inquiring into the conditions under which a belief is justified or unjustified, we can also inquire into the conditions under which particular degrees of belief are justified or unjustified. In this unit will take up this question, and consider how this issue relates to the lessons of Unit 3. Along the way, we’ll discuss some paradoxes that arise for attempts to reduce belief to degrees of belief.
Schedule
Unit 1: Skepticism
Week 1 – First Encounters with the Skeptic (handout)
Required Reading:
Further Reading:
Week 2 - Can We Reason Our Way Out of Skepticism?
Part 1: Inference to the Best Explanation (handout)
Required Reading:
Week 3 - Can We Reason Our Way Out of Skepticism?
Part 2: Is Skepticism Self-Undermining? (slides)
Required Reading:
Week 4 – Are Skeptical Scenarios Really Skeptical? (slides)
Required Readings:
Further Reading:
Unit 2: What is Knowledge, Anyway?
Week 5 – The Analysis of Knowledge (slides)
Required Reading:
Further Reading:
Week 6 – The Causal Theory
Required Reading:
Required Reading:
Required Reading:
Unit 3: What is Justification?
Week 9 – Evidentialism (slides)
Required Reading:
Week 10 - Reliabilism (slides)
Required Reading:
Further Reading:
Unit 4: The Epistemology of Graded Belief
Week 11 - Reasoning with Degrees of Belief
Required Reading:
Part 1: Two Paradoxes (slides)
Required Reading:
Week 13 - The Relation Between Belief & Degrees of Belief
Part 2: Justified Belief & Statistical Evidence
Required Reading:
Further Reading:
Unit 1: Skepticism. What – if anything – can we know about the world? This question can seem puzzling. On the one hand, we take ourselves to know many things: e.g., that the earth rotates around the sun, that Kuala Lumpur is the capital of Malaysia, that the earth is more than 1,000 years old, etc. On the other hand, there are seemingly powerful skeptical arguments – arguments that purport to show that virtually none of these claims can qualify as knowledge. We’ll investigate this puzzle in depth, looking at some of the leading attempts to rebut the skeptic’s argument.
Unit 2: What is Knowledge? The skeptic claims that we know nothing (or at least very little). But what is knowledge, anyway? In this unit we’ll take a closer look at the question. We’ll start with the traditional analysis of knowledge as justified true belief, and then look at a famous problem for this analysis – the so-called “Gettier problem”. We’ll then consider various attempts to provide a better analysis of knowledge – one that solves the Gettier problem. Along the way, we’ll discuss how these analyses relate to the skeptical arguments in Unit 1; we’ll also discuss whether we should expect there to be an analysis of knowledge in the first place.
Unit 3: What is Justification? In addition to asking whether a belief amounts to knowledge, we can also ask whether that belief is justified. Indeed, some philosophers have thought that the right response to the puzzles presented in Units 1 and 2 is to dismiss knowledge as unimportant and to focus on justification instead. In this unit, we’ll look at two leading theories of justification: evidentialism and reliabilism. We’ll discuss the arguments for each, as well as their associated problems.
Unit 4: The Epistemology of Graded Belief Beliefs come in degrees: I am more confident that it will rain in the next 10 years than that it will rain tomorrow. So in addition to inquiring into the conditions under which a belief is justified or unjustified, we can also inquire into the conditions under which particular degrees of belief are justified or unjustified. In this unit will take up this question, and consider how this issue relates to the lessons of Unit 3. Along the way, we’ll discuss some paradoxes that arise for attempts to reduce belief to degrees of belief.
Schedule
Unit 1: Skepticism
Week 1 – First Encounters with the Skeptic (handout)
Required Reading:
- Descartes, “Meditation 1” in Meditations on First Philosophy
- Al-Ghazali, Deliverance from Error, paragraphs. 5-17
Further Reading:
- Stroud, “The Problem of the External World” (The Significance of Philosophical Scepticism, Chp. 1)
Week 2 - Can We Reason Our Way Out of Skepticism?
Part 1: Inference to the Best Explanation (handout)
Required Reading:
- Russell, The Problems of Philosophy, Chp. 2, selection
- Vogel, “Cartesian Skepticism and Inference to the Best Explanation”
Week 3 - Can We Reason Our Way Out of Skepticism?
Part 2: Is Skepticism Self-Undermining? (slides)
Required Reading:
- Rinard, “Reasoning One's Way Out of Skepticism”
Week 4 – Are Skeptical Scenarios Really Skeptical? (slides)
Required Readings:
- Chalmers, “The Matrix as Metaphysics”
Further Reading:
- Sosa, “Dreams and Philosophy”
Unit 2: What is Knowledge, Anyway?
Week 5 – The Analysis of Knowledge (slides)
Required Reading:
- Gettier, “Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?”
- Clark, “Knowledge and Grounds”
Further Reading:
- Dharmottara, Explanation of the Ascertainment of Valid Cognition D:4229, 9a2-3.
- Feldman, Epistemology, Chps.2-3
Week 6 – The Causal Theory
Required Reading:
- Goldman, “A Causal Theory of Knowing”
- Feldman, Epistemology, Chp.5, section I “The Causal Theory” (pp.1-86)
Required Reading:
- Nozick, Philosophical Explanations, selections (difficult)
- Feldman, Epistemology, Chp.5, section II “Truth Tracking” (pp.86-90)
Required Reading:
- Zagzebski,"The Inescapability of the Gettier Problem" (difficult)
Unit 3: What is Justification?
Week 9 – Evidentialism (slides)
Required Reading:
- Feldman, Epistemology, chp.4 (“Evidentialist Theories of Knowledge and Justification”), pp.39-49
Week 10 - Reliabilism (slides)
Required Reading:
- Goldman, “What is Justified Belief?”
- Feldman, Epistemology, Chp.5, section III, “Reliabilism”, pp.90-99.
Further Reading:
- Conee and Feldman, “The Generality Problem for Reliabilism” Comesaña, “Evidentialist Reliabilism”
Unit 4: The Epistemology of Graded Belief
Week 11 - Reasoning with Degrees of Belief
Required Reading:
- Bradley, A Critical Introduction to Formal Epistemology, chp.1
Part 1: Two Paradoxes (slides)
Required Reading:
- Bradley, A Critical Introduction to Formal Epistemology, chp.2
- Makinson, “The Paradox of the Preface”
Week 13 - The Relation Between Belief & Degrees of Belief
Part 2: Justified Belief & Statistical Evidence
Required Reading:
- Buchak, “Belief, Credence, and Norms”
Further Reading:
- Jackson, “The Relationship Between Belief and Credence”