NEIL W. TENNANT
tennant.9@osu.edu
If you email me, please use the header PHIL 460: YOURNAME.
Professor
Department of Philosophy
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Autumn Term 2003
PHIL 460: Introduction to Theory of Knowledge
Lecture/Seminar Prerequisites: rudimentary logic, and some experience with conceptual analysis. Aims of this course. We aim to become conversant with all the major concepts and controversies of mainstream discussion in epistemology. This course is both basic and broad. Topics. What makes belief knowledge? What can we know, and how can we know it? What is the role of our sensory experience in our coming to know? What is the role of our reason and understanding? Could there be unknowable truths? Are some truths knowable independently of sensory experience? Do we have innate knowledge? In what sense might non-human animals know anything? What is the structure of justifications for knowledge-claims? Can justifications regress without regressing viciously? In what ways does our knowledge about abstract objects differ from our knowledge about concrete objects? Are knowledge-claims relative or subjective? Do they depend upon socio-political forces and institutions of which we might be unaware? What is the role of the community in constituting an individual's knowledge? What are the special epistemological puzzles posed by subject-matters such as: God; the self; logic; arithmetic; geometry; qualia; perceptual experience; ordinary objects; theoretical entities of natural science (e.g. fundamental particles); meaning and intention; time and space; mind and body; functions and purposes; norms and values? Textbook: Sven Bernecker and Fred Dretske, eds, Knowledge: Readings in Contemporary Epistemology, Oxford University Press, 2000. This book is out of stock at OUP!! Try amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com, or SBX or Longs on High Street. Additional Reading: .ps file, .pdf file
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(on Reserve in Main Library): tba
Assessment:
| Item | Date due | Weight |
| Final exam | tba | 40% |
| Term paper | tba | 50% |
| Class participation | Every session! | 10% |
Policy on attendance at classes
Write about 3000 words on one of the following topics. The material will be easy to find in the textbook.
- What is the problem of justificatory regress? What possible responses are there to this problem?
- What are the essential features of the so-called Gettier counterexamples to the traditional analysis of knowledge as justified true belief? Can a causal theory of knowledge deal with such counterexamples?
- Is there a satisfactory externalist analysis of non-inferential perceptual knowledge?
Lecture summaries
| Monday | Friday | |
| Week 1 | 1M | 1F |
| Week 2 | 2M | 2F |
| Week 3 | No class | 3F |
| Week 4 | 4M | 4F |
| Week 5 | 5M | 5F |
| Week 6 | 6M | 6F |
| Week 7 | 7M | 7F |
| Week 8 | 8M | 8F |
| Week 9 | 9M | 9F |
| Week 10 | 10M | 10F |