PHIL 338
Problems in Epistemology
Please note: this is archived course information from 2018 for PHIL 338.
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
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 338: 15 points
Prerequisites
Any 30 points at Stage II in Philosophy
Restrictions
PHIL 218