Unit name | Epistemology |
---|---|
Unit code | PHIL20009 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | I/5 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
Unit director | Professor. Okasha |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
PHIL10005 Introduction to Philosophy A, PHIL10006 Introduction to Philosophy B. |
Co-requisites |
None |
School/department | Department of Philosophy |
Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
The unit begins with the attempts of philosophers to provide an analysis of the concept of knowledge, discussing the 'trust justified belief' formula, Gettier- style counterexamples to that formula, causal and reliabilist theories, and Nozick's conditional theory. It then moves on to the nature of belief and justification, leading to a discussion of foundationalist versus coherentist models of knowledge. The course concludes with a survey of various sources of knowledge such as the a priori, perception, and induction, and of the extent and degree of certainty of the types of knowledge that each makes possible. The threat of the sceptic poses an ever-present challenge.