Lecture / Seminar: 4 hrs. per week
The course will employ a variety of instructional methods to accomplish its objectives, including some of the following:
A combination of lecture and seminar; group discussions, student presentations, and projects; use of audio-visual material; analysis of case studies.
The course will comprise a survey of historical and/or contemporary perspectives on a range of epistemological topics such as:
1. the nature of reason (e.g., teleological, instrumental, or communicative conceptions);
2. rationalist and empiricist approaches to knowledge, perception, and belief;
3. different theories of epistemic justification (e.g., coherentism, foundationalism internalist and externalist, and virtue theory);
4. different theories of truth (e.g., correspondence, coherence, pragmatic, and semantic);
5. metaphysical, scientific, existential, phenomenological, religious, moral, personal, and other possible approaches to truth, knowledge, and belief;
6. skeptical issues such as the problem of the external world, the problem of other minds, and the problem of induction;
7. problems of testimony such as trust, trustworthiness, epistemologies of ignorance, and epistemic injustice;
8. specific authors such as Plato, Aristotle, Sextus Empiricus, Descartes, Locke, Bayle, Berkeley, Hume, Kant, Peirce, James, Moore, Russell, Wittgenstein, Tarski, Austin, Gettier, Dretske, Code, Mills, Fricker.
At the conclusion of the course, successful students will be able to:
- reason and reflect upon historical and contemporary philosophical viewpoints about topics covered;
- explain the basic philosophical problems related to the nature of reason, truth, knowledge, belief, perception, and experience;
- contrast and compare philosophcal perspectives on specific topics covered in the course.
Evaluation will be based on course objectives and will be carried out in accordance with the Douglas College Evaluation Policy. The instructor will provide a written course outline with specific criteria during the first week of classes.
Assessment will be any possible combination of the following totalling 100%, with no evaluation to exceed 40%:
| Tests, quizzes and/or exams | 20% - 60% |
|
Essays and/or long written assignments and presentations |
20% - 60% |
| Instructor's general evaluation (e.g., course contribution and attendance) | 0% - 20% |
Texts will be updated periodically. Required readings may include primary sources in translation. Typical examples of textbooks are:
Bailey, Andrew and Robert M. Martin, eds. First philosophy: Fundamental problems and readings in philosophy. Vol. 2: Knowledge and reality. 2nd edition. Peterborough: Broadview Press 2011.
Sosa, Ernest. Epistemology. Princeton: Princeton University Press 2018.
Goldman, Alvin and Matthew McGrath. Epistemology: A contemporary introduction. Oxford: OUP 2014.
Cutler, Darcy, ed. Epistemology: An historical approach. New Westminster: Braz-n-ketz Press 2018.
Pritchard, Duncan. What is this thing called knowledge? 4th edition. New York: Routledge 2018.
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