Knowledge and Reality

Course goals

In this course you will gain knowledge of foundational issues in epistemology and metaphysics. Some such issues concern what exists (e.g. numbers?), what knowledge is, and whether it's possible to have knowledge of certain facts, such as those obtained on the basis of inductive inferences. You will learn to discuss and debate about these issues in class discussions, presentations, and within small groups. This will foster critical, analytic, and logical thinking, philosophical and conceptual analysis, and informal and formal argumentation.

Content

In this course we will look at foundational issues in epistemology and metaphysics, including:

• What is knowledge, e.g. is it mere justified, true belief?
• Are knowledge ascriptions (e.g. "Jane knows that P") context-sensitive?
• Can we have knowledge of the external world, or that certain inferential processes, such as induction, lead to justified beliefs?
• What exists, e.g. do numbers, possible objects, fictional characters, or works of art?
• Can a thing be more than just the sum of its parts?

Additional information

Please note: the time slot shown here is not yet final and may still be modified until the 3rd Wednesday in September.