Theory of Knowledge

Philosophy 180, section 1

Professor Matt McCormick

Monday, Wednesday 1:30-2:45  AMD 252

Spring 2008
 

Office Hours:  Wed 11-12, Th 12:00-1:00 and by appointment
Office:  Mendocino 3020            Office phone:  278-7372
email:  mccormick@csus.edu        Webpage: www.csus.edu/indiv/m/mccormickm
Writing Guidelines:  http://www.csus.edu/phil/req/writing.htm
Philosophy Department Office:  Mendocino 3032, 278-6424
 

            Catalog Description:  PHIL180. Theory of Knowledge. Examines the concept to knowledge. Representative topics include: the role of sense perception and memory, the importance of certainty, the justification of belief, philosophical skepticism, the concept of truth and the nature of philosophical inquiry. Emphasis is on contemporary formulations. Prerequisite: 6 units in philosophy or instructor permission. 3 units

 

Required Texts:  The Theory of Knowledge:  Classical and Contemporary Readings.  ed. Louis P. Pojman.  Toronto:  Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, 2003.  ISBN:  0-534-55822-4
 

Pojman, Louis.  What Can We Know?   An Introduction to the Theory of Knowledge.  Toronto:  Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, 2001.  ISBN:  0-534-52417-6.

 

    The Course:

This course will survey epistemology across several important issues that include:

the nature of knowledge.

the nature of justification

rationality

epistemological duties or the ethics of belief

skepticism

Gettier counterexamples

theories of truth

theories concerning belief

sensory/perceptual states and their relationship to knowledge

foundationalism

coherentism

evidentialism

fallibilism

naturalized theories of knowledge

a priori knowledge

induction

synthetic and analytic truths

 
        This course has several goals. 
1)  To introduce students to a number of important historical and contemporary issues and controversies in epistemology.  
2)  To improve students' writing skills, textual analysis skills, and oral discussion/debate skills. 
3)  To introduce students to advanced philosophical methods, writing, and tools.
4)  To cultivate students' abilities to employ those advanced philosophical methods, and tools.
        These goals will be met and assessed with reading assignments, tests, vocabulary assessment, quizzes, paper assignments, class discussions, lectures, and philosophical research. 

       

    Assignments:  In this course you will write four papers on arguments/articles that we are studying, a reading question set, and one longer research style paper (10-15 pages).  The short papers will be mostly be argument reconstructions.  All papers will be assessed according to the criteria described in the assignment and the Philosophy Department writing guidelines posted at:  www.csus.edu/phil/req/writing.htm.  See more information below.

        And there will be a mid-term and final exam that will be made up of short answer questions, quote identification, and several essay questions covering the content of the course.  Each test will cover half of the course material. 

    

    Course Grade:  Your final grade will be calculated as follows:

 

Grading Structure Number Value Total
Short Papers 4 10% 40%
Skepticism Reading Questions 1 5% 5%
Midterm 1 10% 10%
Final Exam 1 10% 10%
Research Paper                    1                15% 15%
Attendance and Participation     10%
Wiki-Page discussion board     10%
      100%

 

Late Assignments:  Course Policies

Missed Assignments:  Course Policies

Makeup Policy:  Course Policies
Grading Guidelines: Course Policies   A detailed explanation of the standards employed in this course to grade assignments and the requirements for different grades can be found at:  http://www.csus.edu/phil/req/grading.htm 

Attendance:  Course Policies

Being Tardy:  Course Policies

Cheating: Course Policies  All students will be responsible for reading and following the university honesty, plagiarism, and cheating policies.  They are posted on the web at:  http://www.csus.edu/admbus/umanual/UMA00150.htm

Intellectual Property Right Policy.  Course Policies

Students with Disabilities:  Course Policies


Course Schedule:  I have included more readings than we can possibly discuss.  I will be making some modifications to the reading list by removing some of these, and probably not adding any.  Read all the assigned pages for the week unless otherwise instructed in class.

 

Some of Prof. McCormick's lecture notes and some of the readings will be posted in WebCT:  https://online.csus.edu/webct/entryPageIns.dowebct

 

Week 1 (Jan. 28-Jan. 30) : Introduction. The Basics.

Readings:

Pojman, What Can We Know?  Chapter 1:  1-24

Belief: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/belief/

Truth:  http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/truth/

Justification:  http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/knowledge-analysis/#JUS

Week 2 (Feb. 4-6):  Belief, Truth, Justification continued. 

Skepticism and the External World

 

Readings:

Descartes: Global Skepticism and the Quest for Certainty, 22-38.

Hume: Skepticism Regarding the Senses, 39-48.

Week 3 (Feb. 11-13):  Skepticism and the External World, continued

 

Skepticism Reading Questions Due beginning of class, Monday:  Skepticism Reading Questions  (These questions cover the Week 2-4 readings on Descartes, Hume, Moore, Putnam, and Carnap)

Readings: 

Moore: A Defense of Common Sense, 49-55.

Pojman, What Can We Know? Chapter 2: The Skeptical Tradition, 26-36.

Week 4 (Feb. 18-20): Skepticism continued.

 

First Paper Assignment:  Putnam and Carnap due Monday, Feb. 18 at the beginning of class. The papers concern the readings linked below.    

Readings: 

Putnam, Brains in a Vat. This is a web link--you won't find this reading in the book.

Carnap, Empiricism, Semantics, and Ontology  This is a web link--you won't find this reading in the book.

Pojman, What Can We Know?  Chapter 3: Modern Skepticism, 37-63.

 Week 5 (Feb. 25-Feb. 27): Perception: Our Knowledge of the External World

Readings:

Locke, 75-87.

Berkeley, 88-95

Pojman, What Can We Know? Chapter 4: Perception: Our Knowledge of the External World, 64-79

Week 6  (March 3-5):  The Analysis of Knowledge: The Gettier Problem

   

Second Paper Assignment:  The Gettier Problem due Monday, March 3 at the beginning of class.

Readings:

 

    Gettier, 125-126.

    Feldman, 127-128

    Pojman, What Can We Know?

        Chapter 5: What is Knowledge? An Analysis, 80-98

Week 7 (March 10-12): Gettier Problem continued. 

Readings:

Goldman, 129-137.

Lehrer, 138-141.

Week 8 (March 17 and 19): Theories of Justification: Foundationalism and Coherentism

Readings:

Chisholm, 163-173

Audi, 174-181.

Bonjour, 182-193

Pojman, What Can We Know?  Chapter 6, 99-114.

Week 9 (March 24 and 26): Coherentism

Readings:

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Entry on Coherentist Theories of Justification

Pojman, What Can We Know? Chapter 7, 115-133

Midterm, Wed. March 26 in class. 

 

Spring Break:  March 31-April 4

 

Week 10 (April 7 and 9):  Post-Gettier Epistemology

   

Third Paper Assignment:  Bishop and Trout:  Problems with SAE due Monday, April 7 at the beginning of class.

Readings: 

Bishop and Trout, handout from Epistemology and the Psychology of Human Judgment

"The Pathologies of Standard Analytic Epistemology."

Responses:  A Review by Jonathan Weinberg.

Week 11 (April 14-16):  Theories of Justification: Externalism and Internalism

Readings:

Goldman, 260-272

Lehrer, 273-286

Pojman, What Can We Know? Chapter 8 and 10, 134-163, 185-197.

Week 12 (April 21 and 23): Externalism and Internalism continued.

Readings:  

 

    Quine, 287-295

    Conee and Feldman, 296-309

    Pojman, What Can We Know? Chapter 8 and 10, 134-163, 185-197.

Nammour Symposium, Tuesday April 22 and 23.  Our class will meet there on Wednesday.  Details TBA

 

Week 13- (April 28 and 30):  Teleological Accounts of Justification

 

Fourth Paper Assignment:  Churchland On Reliabilism or Plantinga on Warrant due Monday, May 5 at the beginning of class.

Readings: 

Churchland,  "What Happens to Reliabilism When It Is Liberated from the Propositional Attitudes?"  in WebCT "Some Research Paper Articles" Folder. 

Selections from Plantinga's Warrant and Proper Function are available in WebCT.

Plantinga, "Is Belief in God Properly Basic?"   Must have saclink id and login for library access to JSTOR.

Review of Plantinga: Evan Fales,  in WebCT  "Plantinga Readings" folder

Pojman, What Can We Know? Chapter 9, 164-184

Week 14- (May 5 and 7): A priori Knowledge

 

Readings:

Kant, 370-377

Maddy, Penelope.  "Naturalism and the A Priori."  http://www.lps.uci.edu/home/fac-staff/faculty/maddy/NAP.pdf

 

Ayer, 378-384

Quine, 391-402

Pojman, What Can We Know? Chapter 12, 205-227.

Research Paper:

        There are instructions and a list of possible topics for the research paper here:  Theory of Knowledge Term Paper

I strongly encourage you to give me a proposal, outline, or at least have a discussion with me in office hours or on email about the topic of your paper.  Many topics are not suitable and your grade will benefit from some guidance that I can give. 

 

Final Paper due Friday, May 9 th, by 5:00.  Submit by email:  mccormick@csus.edu  It must be in a Word doc format. 

 

Week 15- (May 12 and 14) Rationality

 

Readings:

Stich, "Could Man Be An Irrational Animal?" Synthese 64: 115-135. On reserve.

Wason Selection Tasks: http://www.psych.ucsb.edu/research/cep/socex/wason.htm

Feldman, "Rationality, Reliability, and Natural Selection."  Philosophy of Science, 55 (1988) pp. 218-227.   On reserve.

Review and Summation.

Final Exam:  Monday, May 19th 12:45-2:45 in class.

 

Final Exam Review Sheet

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________-


 Assignments:

 

Wikispaces Discussion Board:

 

All students are required to make regular, constructive, and considered contributions to our discussion board within Wikispaces.  The address is:   

 

http://phil180epistemology.wikispaces.com/

 

Getting started:  Go to that address.  Create an identity.  In order to get credit for your contributions and so that the rest of the class can identify you, you must use your full name as your identity with no spaces.  So mine is:  MattMcCormick.  If your name's already taken, add "Phil180" to the end of it. 

 

Posting questions, comments, and ideas:  Under the discussion tab, there will be different threads of conversation with questions and comments from Prof. McCormick and other students.  Choose topics and questions that you find interesting and make a post, or ask new questions and start a thread of your own. 

 

Grading:  Students who make frequent, reflective, and helpful posts (at least 12 for the semester) will receive a full 10% for this portion of the grade.  Lesser contributions will be graded proportionally lower.  Contributions will be evaluated on the basis of these criteria:

  1. How frequently did the student post?

  2. How constructive and thoughtful were the student's contributions?

  3. To what extent did the student's posts reflect an engagement in the concepts, issues, and philosophical challenges focused on in the course?

  4. To what extent did the student's posts reflect his or her familiarity with the assigned readings for the course?

 

Skepticism Reading Questions

 

Paper Assignments:  (also linked in the weekly schedule above)

 

Putnam and Carnap

The Gettier Problem

Bishop and Trout:  Problems with SAE

Plantinga on Warrant

 

Short Papers:Guidelines and instructions for writing the short argument summaries are at:  Theory of Knowledge Short Papers

Professor Mayes' How to Analyze a Philosophical Essay is also a good guide to what I am looking for on these assignments. 

 

Research Paper:

        There are instructions and a list of possible topics for the research paper here:  Theory of Knowledge Term Paper

I strongly encourage you to give me a proposal, outline, or at least have a discussion with me in office hours or on email about the topic of your paper.  Many topics are not suitable and your grade will benefit from some guidance that I can give.