PHIL 218

Problems in Epistemology


Please note: this is archived course information from 2018 for PHIL 218.

Description

Epistemology is the study of knowledge, what it is and the conditions under which we possess it.

This course will introduce students to central topics in epistemology, including the following:

  • What is knowledge and is it possible to define it?
  • The "justified true belief" account of knowledge and the question of how to respond to the famous counter-examples due to Edmund Gettier
  • Theories of epistemic justification, including foundationalism, coherentism and reliabilism and the general contrast between "internalist" and "externalist" accounts of justification
  • The problem of scepticism and responses to it (the course will conclude with discussion of Wittgenstein's On Certainty); arguments for and against "naturalised" epistemology

View the course syllabus

Availability 2018

Semester 2

Lecturer(s)

Lecturer(s) Professor John Bishop

Reading/Texts

Noah Lemos, An Introduction to the Theory of Knowledge (Cambridge University Press, 2007)

Assessment

Coursework + exam

Points

PHIL 218: 15 points

Prerequisites

30 points in Philosophy

Restrictions

PHIL 338