PHIL 252 Epistemology Units: 3.00
Epistemology is the philosophical study of the nature, scope and sources of knowledge, and of related phenomena such as evidence and justification for belief. We will investigate competing answers to epistemological questions such as: To what extent can we have knowledge, in the face of skeptical arguments? What justifies holding a belief: evidence that it is true, or can we justify believing contrary to our evidence if doing so benefits us? Are our beliefs about other people or ourselves shaped by implicit biases? If so, to what extent do such biases undermine our knowledge of ourselves and others?
Learning Hours: 120 (36 Lecture, 84 Private Study)
Requirements: Prerequisite (A minimum GPA of 2.00 in 6.0 units of PHIL) or (a minimum grade of B- in 3.0 units of PHIL).
Exclusion PHIL 250/6.0.
Offering Faculty: Faculty of Arts and Science
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Integrate content from the course readings and in-class discussions to produce a portfolio of work that reveals an increasingly sophisticated understanding of epistemology that approximately tracks the progression of the course in real time.
- Communicate their assimilation of a reasonable subset of the course readings and in-class discussions via organized, cogent prose.
- Support and enhance the learning of their peers via oral contributions to discussions, active listening, or other means provided or required by the syllabus.
- Reconstruct arguments from the philosophical texts being studied and raise interpretive questions about or accurately targeted objections to those arguments, in written or oral forms as required by the syllabus, at an intermediate level.