| Syllabus | WebCT | Announcements |
Epistemology: Contemporary Readings, edited by Michael Huemer. Routledge, 2002. ISBN 978-0-415-25921-7.Readings in metaphysics are on reserve in Oviatt or are to be downloaded, as indicated below.
| Week | Date | Reading | Pages |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1/20 | ||
| EPISTEMOLOGY: PERCEPTION | |||
| 1 | 1/22 | Descartes, Meditation #1 Locke, excerpts from Essay Concerning Human Understanding Hume, “Of the Academical or Sceptical Philosophy,” from An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding |
515 - 518 32 - 36 46 - 50 |
| 2 | 1/27 | discussion of Locke and Hume continued | |
| EPISTEMOLOGY: THE STRUCTURE AND GROWTH OF JUSTIFICATION AND KNOWLEDGE | |||
| 2 | 1/29 | Carroll,“What the Tortoise said to Achilles” Hume, “Of Scepticism with Regard to Reason,” from A Treatise of Human Nature |
256 - 258 270 - 274 |
| 3 | 2/3 | Fumerton, “Inferential Justification and Empiricism” | 259 - 269 |
| 2/5 | BonJour, from The Structure of Empirical Knowledge | 387 - 401 | |
| 2/6 | Friday, February 6 is the last day to drop a class or change the basis of grading. | ||
| 4 | 2/10 | BonJour, from The Structure of Empirical Knowledge | 387 - 401 |
| 2/12 | Haack, “A Foundherentist Theory of Empirical Justification” | 417 - 431 | |
| 5 | 2/17 | Haack, continued Oakley, “An Argument for Scepticism Concerning Justified Beliefs” |
375 - 386 |
| 2/19 | Oakley, “An Argument for Scepticism Concerning Justified Beliefs” | 375 - 386 | |
| 6 | 2/24 | Hume, excerpts from An Enquiry
Concerning Human Understanding Goodman, “The New Riddle of Induction” from Fact, Fiction, and Forecast |
298 - 310 320 - 332 |
| 2/26 | Foster, “Induction, Explanation and Natural Necessity” | 333 - 343 | |
| EPISTEMOLOGY: THE NATURE AND SCOPE OF JUSTIFICATION AND KNOWLEDGE | |||
| 7 | 3/3 | Gettier, “Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?” Goldman, “A Causal Theory of Knowing” |
444 - 446 450 - 463 |
| 3/5 | Goldman, “A Causal Theory of Knowing” | 450 - 463 | |
| 8 | 3/10 | Putnam, “Brains in a Vat,” from Reason, Truth, and History | 524 - 538 |
| 3/12 | Putnam, “Brains in a Vat” | 524 - 538 | |
| 9 | 3/17 | Dretske, “The Pragmatic Dimension of Knowledge” | 539 - 551 |
| METAPHYSICS: REALISM | |||
| 9 | 3/19 | van Inwagen, “Objectivity” (from his Metaphysics) (on reserve in Oviatt) | 56 - 69 |
| 10 | 3/24 | Stroud, selection from “The Philosophical Conception of an
Independent Reality” (Chapter 2 in The Quest for Reality) (on reserve in Oviatt) |
21 - top of 41 |
| 3/26 | NO CLASS MEETING. Use this time to work on your paper, due 9 AM Monday, March 30. | ||
| 11 | 3/31 | CESAR CHAVEZ HOLIDAY | |
| 4/2 | Devitt, “Naturalistic Defense of Realism” (from Metaphysics: Contemporary Readings, edited by Steven Hales, as reprinted in Knowledge and Reality: Classic and Contemporary Readings, edited by Steven M. Cahn, Maureen Eckert, and Robert Buckley)(on reserve in Oviatt) |
441 - 455 | |
| SPRING BREAK | |||
| METAPHYSICS: CAUSATION | |||
| 12 | 4/14 | Lewis, “Causation,” The
Journal of Philosophy vol. 70 no. 17 (1973) (Find using Philosophers’ Index and download.) CLASS CANCELLED due to illness. Discussion postponed until Thursday, April 16. |
556 - 567 |
| 4/16 | Lewis, “Causation,” as scheduled for 4/14 | ||
| 13 | 4/21 | Lewis, “Causation,” continued Tooley, “Causation: Reductionism versus Realism”, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, vol. 50 Supplement (1990) (Find using Philosophers’ Index and download.) CLASS CANCELLED due to illness. Discussion postponed until Thursday, April 23. |
215 - 236 |
| 4/23 | Lewis and Tooley as scheduled for 4/21 | ||
| METAPHYSICS: PROPERTIES AND PARTICULARS | |||
| 14 | 4/28 | Russell, “The World of Universals,” from The Problems of Philosophy (on reserve in Oviatt) | |
| 4/30 | Price, “Universals and Resemblance” from Thinking and Experience (on reserve in Oviatt) | ? - ? | |
| 15 | 5/5 | Ehring, “Property Counterparts and Natural Class Trope Nominalism,”
Australisian Journal of Philosophy vol. 82 no. 3 (September 2004) (Find using Philosophers’ Index and download.) |
443 - 463 |
| 5/7 | Heller, §1-§9 of “Temporal Parts of Four-Dimensional Objects” (Chapter 1 in The ontology of physical objects: Four-dimensional hunks of matter) (on reserve in Oviatt) |
1 - 20 | |
| Last modified April 21, 2009. |
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