Office Hours: MF 1:30-2:30pm or by appointment.

FASS Rm 3129

Prerequisite:

Two of Philosophy 2130, 2610, and 2620, or permission of the instructor.

Texts:

Michael Williams, Problems of Knowledge: A Critical Introduction to Epistemology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001).

Course Reader of photocopies, available at Campus Copy.

Occasional photocopies on reserve or otherwise available.

Additional Text for Graduate Students:

Miranda Fricker, Epistemic Injustice: Power and the Ethics of Knowing (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2007). Available on-line through the Dalhousie Library website <http://www.oxfordscholarship.com.ezproxy.library.dal.ca/oso/public/content/subject_index/philosophy/phimet/authors_first.html>. Or go to <http://www.library.dal.ca/Find/Books/EBooks/> and follow the links for Oxford Scholarship Online.

Evaluation:

Undergraduates:

Weekly Short Assignments (250-500 words each): 40%

Best 4 to 8, depending on class attendance. (See below.) At least two of those to be counted must be done by October 22.

One essay (2500-3000 words) Due: December 3: 60%

Graduates:

Short Assignments (250-500 wds each); best 8: 40%

(One of these will be presented in class.)

One essay (4000-5000 wds) Due: December 3: 60%

Term-work will be assigned a numerical mark, which will be converted to a letter-grade at the end of the term.

Approximate Grading Scale

Late Work: Late work will be penalized 5% per working day up to a maximum of seven days, after which it will not be accepted.

Plagiarism: Please attend to the following excerpt from the Dalhousie Calendar (or go to <http://www.registrar.dal.ca/calendar/front/UREG.htm> and click on <Intellectual Honesty>):

    Dalhousie University defines plagiarism as the submission or presentation of the work of another as if it were one's own.

Plagiarism is considered a serious academic offence which may lead to the assignment of a failing grade, suspension or expulsion from the University. If a penalty results in a student no longer meeting the requirements of a degree that has been awarded, the University may rescind that degree.

    Some examples of plagiarism are:

• failure to attribute authorship when using a broad spectrum of sources such as written or oral work, computer codes/programs, artistic or architectural works, scientific projects, performances, web page designs, graphical representations, diagrams, videos, and images;

• downloading all or part of the work of another from the Internet and submitting as one's own; and

• the use of a paper prepared by any person other than the individual claiming to be the author.

    The University attaches great importance to the contribution of original thought to learning and scholarship. It attaches
    equal importance to the appropriate acknowledgement of sources from which facts and opinions have been obtained.

    The proper use of footnotes and other methods of acknowledgement vary from one field of study to another. Failure to cite
     sources as required in the particular field of study in the preparation of essays, term papers and dissertations or theses
     may, in some cases, be considered to be plagiarism.

    Students who are in any doubt about how to acknowledge sources should discuss the matter in advance with the faculty
     members for whom they are preparing assignments. In many academic departments, written statements on matters of this
     kind are made available as a matter of routine or can be obtained on request. Students may also take advantage of
     resources available through the Writing Centre at <writingcentre.dal.ca> or the Dalhousie Libraries at
     <infolit.library.dal.ca/tutorials/Plagiarism/>.

Plagiarism is a serious academic offence and will be dealt with severely in this course. "Severely" means severely. If I find evidence of plagiarism or other academic dishonesty on any of your papers, I am required by the University to report it to the Faculty's Academic Integrity Officer (AIO), who may then refer the matter to the Senate Discipline Committee, and I will do so. If that happens, I will not be allowed to discuss the matter with you, and you will not receive a mark for the work in question until after the evidence has been reviewed by the AIO and, if deemed necessary, a hearing of the Committee, to which you will be invited and given the chance to respond to the allegations. These hearings are not pleasant, and almost every one of the thirty or so cases that I have reported to the Committee has resulted in a penalty being applied to the student in question.

The Class: There will be weekly reading-assignments. You should bring your text to class and be prepared to discuss the material covered. Short, weekly writing-assignments (see "Evaluation") will be due on Monday of each week (unless otherwise indicated).

Weekly Assignments: Each weekly assignment will pertain to the readings for week in which the assignment is due. For graduate students I shall count the best eight. For undergraduates I shall count the best four to eight, depending on class attendance, according to the following formula:

Classes Attended	12	11	10	9	8	7	6	5	4	3	2	1
# of Assignments required	4	4	5	5	6	6	7	7	7	8	8	8

If you miss three consecutive classes, that will further increase the number of assignments required by 1 (to a maximum of 8). At least two of the assignments to be counted must be completed by October 22.

Troubles? If you are having problems with the course, please see me.

September 10 INTRODUCTION: KNOWLEDGE, THE THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE, AND THE THEORY OF THE THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE

Williams, Introduction, "The Very Idea of a Theory of Knowledge"   

September 17 THE ANALYSIS OF KNOWLEDGE AND THE GETTIER PROBLEM

Williams, Chapter 1, "The Standard Analysis"

Williams, Chapter 2, "Knowledge without Evidence"

Goldman, "A Causal Theory of Knowing"

Nozick, "Knowledge" from Philosophical Explanations, 172-185

September 24 RELIABILISM

Goldman, "What Is Justified Belief?"

Pollock, Contemporary Theories of Knowledge, 114-122

Williams, Chapter 3, "Two Ideals"

Williams, Chapter 4, "Unstable Knowledge"

October 1 SCEPTICISM (A FIRST PASS)

Williams, Chapter 5, "Agrippa's Trilemma"

Williams, Chapter 6, "Experience and Reality"

Nozick, "Skepticism" from Philosophical Explanations, 197-217

October 8 FOUNDATIONALISM

Williams, Chapter 7, "Foundations"

Williams, Chapter 8, "The Problem of the Basis"

Williams, Chapter 9, "Reduction and Inference"

Audi, "Contemporary Foundationalism"

Feldman, "Modest Foundationalism"

October 15 A PRIORI KNOWLEDGE AND THE ANALYTIC/SYNTHETIC DISTINCTION

Williams, 88-90

Quine, "Two Dogmas of Empiricism," §§5-6

Campbell, Illusions of Paradox, 145-152

Hymers, "Revisability and Contextual Apriority"

Campbell, "Reply to Mike Hymers on A Priori Truth"

October 22 COHERENTISM

Williams, Chapter 10, "Coherence"

Williams, Chapter 11, "The Myth of the System"

BonJour, "The Coherence Theory of Empirical Knowledge"

October 29 CONTEXTUALISM

Williams, Chapter 13, "Evidence and Entitlement"

Williams, Chapter 14, "Knowledge in Context"

Williams, Chapter 15, "Seeing and Knowing"

Duran, "The Possibility of a Feminist Epistemology"

November 5 FEMINIST EPISTEMOLOGY

Fricker, "Powerlessness and Social Interpretation"

Tuana, "The Speculum of Ignorance: The Women's Health Movement and

Epistemologies of Ignorance"

Mason, Chapter 3

November 12 TRUTH and RELATIVISM

Glanzberg, "Truth" (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy <http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/truth/>)

Davidson, "On the Very Idea of a Conceptual Scheme"

Hymers, Philosophy and Its Epistemic Neuroses, Chapter 5

November 19 SCEPTICISM AGAIN

Williams, Chapter 16, "Scepticism and Epistemic Priority"

Allen, Knowledge and Civilization, Chapter 1, 22-26

Graham, "The Theoretical Diagnosis of Skepticism"

November 26 PROBLEMS OF INDUCTION

Williams, Chapter 17, "Induction"

Williams, Chapter 18, "Projection and Conjecture"

Quine, "Epistemology Naturalized" esp. 325-328 (beginning at "Philosophers have rightly despaired ...")

Quine, "Natural Kinds" esp. 123-129

Kim, "What Is Naturalized Epistemology?"

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