Philosophy 3141: The Theory of Knowledge

We will begin this course with an investigation of the problem of perception.  The reason it is called a “problem” is simply that while common sense tells that one of the best ways of coming to know the world around us is by using our sense perceptions, if these perceptions are simply the end result of a complex causal process, then what assurances do we have that the end results of these processes, i.e., our perceptions of the world, are at all similar to the beginnings of these processes, i.e., the world itself.  We will then develop various epistemological positions such as coherentism, foundationalism, internalism, externalism, and naturalized epistemology, as they respond to this problem.  We will wrap up this course by outlining a “pragmatic” approach which attempts to answer epistemological questions by an appeal to empirical psychological findings, as outlined by Steven Stich, who will also come to campus on the last day of the semester, as the third speaker of this year’s Midwest Colloquium in Philosophy.

Students will do two to three in-class presentations of reading material, three take home exams - after each of the three parts of the course, biweekly one page argumentative essays, and a five to seven page final paper.

Texts: D.L.C. Maclachlan’s Philosophy of Perception, Laurence Bonjour’s Epistemology: Classic Responses and Contemporary Responses, and Stephen Stich’s The Fragmentation of Reason: A Preface To A Pragmatic Theory of Cognitive Evaluation.