Philosophy 4340 / 5340 - Epistemology (Fall 2012)

Instructor: Brian Talbot
Office Hours: MW, 2-2:50 & 4-5; F, 2-2:50; and by appointment
Office Location: Hellems (HLMS) 271B
Email: When I put my address on the web, I get tons of spam. So it's a little puzzle... this course is in what department? My email address is the name of that department, @ , and then the name of this website. It's on the syllabus too.

Where what this website says conflicts with the syllabus, trust this site over the syllabus. Safari users might not be able to see updates to the website when they occur. It's a problem with Safari; use Firefox instead. For Firefox users, if the website is supposed to have been updated but you don't see the updates, hit the "reload current page" button.

Week one: Introduction
* What is epistemology and why does it matter? No homework due.

Week two: Cartesian skepticism
* Mon, Sep 3 is Labor Day
* Watch this video on how to formalize arguments; you won't be able to do the homework until you watch this. If you want to look at the slides after watching the video, click here.
* Here are the grading standards for the homework.
* Wed, Sep 5, reading: Descartes, Meditation I (excerpts) (you must formalize this)

Week three
* Mon, Sep 10: Continue with Descartes
* Wed, Sep 12: Klein, Human Knowledge and the Infinite Regress of Reason; you only need to read and formalize the argument in pages 297-301.

Week four: Foundationalism
* Mon, Sep 17, Reading: Bonjour, Can empirical knowledge have a foundation. Note: In addition to formalizing the argument, please write a sentence or two on your homework explaining why PAA and PAC are each plausible.
* Fri, Sep 21, homework: In class on the 19th, we talked about four possible criteria for a theory of justification (i - iv). I argued that the conjunction of these would imply that skepticism is true; so, if skepticism is false, one of these must be false. Further, I also gave two desiderata on a theory of justification (a and b), which I suggested might lead to i - iv. For your homework, explain which of i - iv you think is false (you must pick at least one, but you can pick more). Explain why it is false. Also explain whether you reject a, or reject b, or think that a and b together don't require all of i - iv to be true. Defend this view. Note: this should be a brief essay, not a formalized argument.

Week five: More foundationalism
* Mon, Sep 24, Reading: Huemer, A version of foundationalism (excerpt from Skepticism and the Veil of Perception)

Week six: Coherentism
* Wed, Oct 3, Reading: BonJour, Coherence Theory of Empirical Knowledge

Week seven: Externalism
* Wed, Oct 10, Reading: Why externalism?

Week eight: Work on the paper
FIRST PAPER ASSIGNMENT HERE
Paper grading standards here

Week nine: Religious experience
* Mon, Oct 22, Reading: Eugene d'Aquili & Andrew Newberg, "The Neuropsychological Basic of Religions, or Why God Won't Go Away"

Week ten: Moral intuitions
* Wed, Oct 31, Reading: Singer, Ethics and Intuitions.

Week eleven: Moral intuitions, continued
* Friday, Nov 9, Reading: Sinnott-Armstrong, "Moral intuitionism meets empirical psychology"

Week twelve: Disagreement
* Monday, Nov 26, Reading: Peter van Inwagen, "Quam Dilecta". You don't have to read the whole thing (in fact, I recommend not doing so); you can start where he says "Yes, yes, autobiographical narrative is all very well" and end where you find the "****" Formalize just this part of the paper.

Week thirteen (spooky!): Disagreement in experience
* Tuesday, Dec 4, 10pm: Email me your thesis, subject line "4340 Paper 2 Thesis"
* Wednesday, Dec 5, Reading: Huemer, Epistemological Egoism (formalize this)
* Optional reading: I have a paper currently under review arguing against what Huemer says in the above paper. If you are curious, or are thinking about writing on this topic, you may want to take a look.

Week fourteen: Wrap up
* Outline due (in class): Monday, Dec 10. Your outline should begin with a formalization of your main argument. This should be comprehensible to me without having to read the rest of your outline. I will grade this formalization, but I won't read the rest of your outline (I'll just glance at it to make sure that you did enough work on it).


FINAL PAPER ASSIGNMENT HERE
* Email me your thesis (to my bigfatgenius email address): Tuesday, Dec 4, by 10pm. Put your thesis, and any questions you have about it, into the body of an email, with the subject line "4340 Paper 2 Thesis."
* Outline due (in class): Monday, Dec 10. Your outline should begin with a formalization of your main argument. This should be comprehensible to me without having to read the rest of your outline. I will grade this formalization, but I won't read the rest of your outline (I'll just glance at it to make sure that you did enough work on it).
* Draft due to partners: Monday, Dec 17, 8pm. Cc. a copy to me at my bigfatgenius email address; subject line "4340 Paper 2 Draft."
* Comments due to partners: Wednesday, Dec 19, 8pm. Cc. a copy to me at my bigfatgenius email address; subject line "4340 Paper 2 Comments."
* Final paper due: Friday, Dec 21, 8pm, via email. Subject line: "4340 Paper 2 Final."