The
materials that you'll need for Epistemology II (5AANA009) and Epistemology (7AAN2007) will all be found here. You can
find links to readings and occasional notes below. The notes are a supplement
only. You must still attend lectures, attend discussion sections, and
read the assigned readings. My advice would be to turn to the notes
only after you've met with your GTAs and always do the reading prior to
lecture. You should reach each of the writings linked in preparation
for the lecture at least once.
[Important note about the links. Some links will take you to pages that hide papers away behind a firewall. You should be able to access these using your student ID.]
[Important note about the links. Some links will take you to pages that hide papers away behind a firewall. You should be able to access these using your student ID.]
Syllabus for 5AANA009
Syllabus for 7AAN2007
NB: Please do NOT write on whether there's always reason to be rational without discussing this with me first. I modified the syllabus last minute, but missed an old question and neglected to take it off the list.
Also, if you want to look at some notes (very rough), feel free.
Week 1 – Internalism & Evidentialism
Cohen, Justification and Truth
Conee and Feldman, Internalism Defended
Recommended
Huemer, Phenomenal Conservatism and the Internalist Intuition
Huemer, Compassionate Phenomenal Conservatism
Conee and Feldman, Evidence
Conee and Feldman, Evidentialism
Herman, What Happens to the Consequences?
Comesana & McGrath, Perceptual Reasons
Shah, A New Argument for Evidentialism
Recommended (In light of Week 3, a quick glance at one or both Ryan pieces is highly recommended)
Ryan, The Preface Paradox
Hawthorne, Knowledge and Lotteries
Shoemaker, Moore's Paradox and Self-Knowledge
Easwaran and Fitelson, Accuracy, Coherence, and Evidence
Recommended
Joyce, A Nonpragmatic Vindication of Probabilism
Pettigrew, Epistemic Utility and Norms for Credences
Bradley, A Critical Introduction to Formal Epistemology Chp 3 [Very gentle introduction]
Christensen, Two Models of Belief
Christensen, Arguments for Deductive Cogency
Week 4 – Epistemic Value & The Aim of Belief
Important Note: This is a change from initial draft of syllabus. We won't be reading the papers on rational requirements.
Zagzebski, The Search for the Source of the Epistemic GoodImportant Note: This is a change from initial draft of syllabus. We won't be reading the papers on rational requirements.
Lynch, True to Life
Hyman, The Road to Larissa
Recommended
Wedgwood, On the Aim of Belief
Week 5 – Evidence, Reasons, and Justification
Alvarez, Kinds of ReasonsUnger, Ignorance
Hyman, How Knowledge Works
Recommended
Davidson, Actions, Reasons, and Causes
You might also revisit Comesana & McGrath, Perceptual Reasons
Reading Week!
Week 6 -- Contextualism & Skepticism
DeRose, Solving the Skeptical Problem
Williamson, Knowledge, Context, and the Agent's Point of View
Recommended
Nagel, Knowledge Ascriptions and the Psychological Consequences of Thinking about Error
Nagel, Epistemic Anxiety and Adaptive Invariantism
Week 7 – Epistemological Disjunctivism
Pritchard, Epistemological Disjunctivism [Focus just on Part One]
Pritchard, Epistemological Disjunctivism [Focus just on Part One]
Recommended
Anscombe, On Sensations of Position
ENJOY! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jruaU0f4UVQ
Week 8 – Memory & Knowledge
[In Russell's The Analysis of Mind, you'll want to look at Lecture IX (around pp. 109 to pp. 123 don't need to read beyond the fn about the element of belief in memory))]
Malcolm, Knowledge and Certainty
Hacker, The Intellectual Powers [While light on the epistemological issues, very helpful in understanding the different forms of memory.]
Huemer, The Problem of Memory Knowledge
Recommended
Bernecker, Memory
Week 9 – Normative Externalism
Srinivasan, Normativity without Cartesian Privilege
Titelbaum, Rationality's Fixed Point
Gibbons, You Gotta Do what You Gotta Do
Recommended
Gibbons, Things that Make Things Reasonable
Littlejohn, A Plea for Epistemic Excuses
Week 10 – Epistemic Responsibility
Alston, The Deontological Conception of JustificationHieronymi, Responsibility for Believing
Recommended
McHugh, Epistemic Deontology and Voluntariness
