Spring 2004
Theory of Knowledge
Syllabus
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Spring 2004 |
Theory of KnowledgeSyllabus |
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You can also purchase the texts online:
Some optional readings will be placed on library reserve.
Also, we will meet in small discussion sections once a week. We expect you to actively participate in these sections. Talking about philosophy is one of the best ways of learning how to do it. Your participation in these sections will make up a substantial part of your grade for the course.
Please go to the course web site and let us know your preferences for section times as soon as possible. You can go back later and revise them, if your schedule changes.
There is a reading assignment for most class meetings. These readings are sometimes short, but they all require close study. You should read them carefully before we discuss them in class, and you need to read them more than once. You won't understand the material unless you read it several times. A good strategy would be to read it one time before we discuss it, and then go back and read it again after we've discussed it--several times if necessary.
You'll be doing several writing exercises for this course. They'll all be given grades, but not all of the grades will count.
Your grade for the course will be determined as follows:
| Date | Topics | Assigned Readings |
|---|---|---|
| Mon 2/2 | Introduction | |
| Wed 2/4 | Lotteries and Dreaming | Feldman Chapters 1-2 Unger (in coursepack) |
| Mon 2/9 | Selections from Nozick and Pollock & Cruz Phil Issues in Matrix Descartes' First Meditation (all in coursepack) |
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| Wed 2/11 | Realism | Review Feldman pp. 17-21, 22-23 Optional: Feldman Ch. 9 van Inwagen (coursepack) |
| Mon 2/16 | Orwell, Nineteen Eighty Four What's so bad...? (both in coursepack) |
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| Questions about Knowledge | ||
| Wed 2/18 | The Dreaming Argument in More Detail | Rosenberg, First Conversation and to bottom of p. 22 in Second Feldman pp. 108-119 Stroud Chapter 1 (coursepack) |
| Mon 2/23 | Evidentialist Responses First Writing Exercise Due Monday 2/23 |
Feldman pp. 39-49, 119-129, 141-152 Blumenfelds (coursepack) |
| Wed 2/25 - Mon 3/1 | The Gettier Problem | Gettier and Harman (both in coursepack) Rosenberg, from p. 22 to top of p. 40 in Third Conversation Feldman Chapter 3 |
| Wed 3/3 | Extra-evidential accounts of knowledge | Goldman, "Discrim & perceptual K" (coursepack) Feldman pp. 81-86 |
| Mon 3/8 | Second Writing Exercise Due Monday 3/8 | |
| Wed 3/10 | Nozick | Remaining Nozick selections (coursepack) Feldman pp. 86-90 |
| Spring Break | ||
| Mon 3/22 | Relevant Alternatives | Stroud Chapter 2 Cohen, "Skepticism & everyday K attributions" (both in coursepack) |
| Wed 3/24 | Dretske, "Pragmatic dimension" Cohen, "Skepticism, relevance, relativity" (both in coursepack) |
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| Mon 3/29 | Contextualism | DeRose (coursepack) Feldman pp. 152-5 Sosa and Kornblith (coursepack) |
| Questions about Evidence and Justification | ||
| Wed 3/31 | The Regress Argument and Cartesian Foundations | Russell (coursepack) Dicker (coursepack) |
| Mon 4/5 | First Paper Due Monday 4/5 | Feldman pp. 49-60 Armstrong (coursepack) |
| Wed 4/7 | Reliabilism | Rest of Rosenberg's Third Conversation Goldman, "What is justified belief?" Feldman pp. 90-99 |
| Mon 4/12 | BonJour, "Externalist theories..." (coursepack) | |
| Wed 4/14 | Feldman and Conee, "Internalism defended" (coursepack) | |
| Mon 4/19 | Foundationalism and Coherentism Rewrites of First Paper Due Monday 4/19 |
BonJour, "Can empirical K have a foundation?" BonJour, "The dialectic..." (both in coursepack) Feldman pp. 60-70 |
| Wed 4/21 | Alston, "Level confusions" Alston, "What's wrong with immediate knowledge?" (both in coursepack) |
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| Mon 4/26 | Pryor, "Skeptic and dogmatist" (coursepack) Feldman pp. 70-78, 145-148 |
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| Wed 4/28 | ||
| Second Paper Due Monday 5/10 | ||
[Theory of Knowledge] [Syllabus] [Notes and Handouts] [James Pryor] [Philosophy Links] [Philosophy Dept.]