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Readings

Below is a list of required readings for each class session, and a bibliography of recommended readings. References to "Feldman" are to the required textbook for the course: Feldman, R. Epistemology. Prentice Hall, 2002.

SES # TOPICS KEY DATES
1 Introduction  
Knowledge
2-6 Can we know anything about the external world? Blumenfeld, D., and J. Blumenfeld. "Can I Know that I am not Dreaming?" In Descartes: Critical and Interpretive Essays. M. Hooker, ed. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1978, pp. 234-55.

Stroud, B. The Significance of Philosophical Skepticism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984, pp. 1-38.

Feldman, R. Epistemology. pp. 1-5, and 111-129.
7-14 What is knowledge?

Gettier, E. L. "Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?" Analysis 23 (1963): 121-3.
[Reprinted in P. K. Moser, ed. Empirical Knowledge: Readings in Contemporary Epistemology. Rowman & Littlefield, 1986.]

Feldman, pp. 8-38.

Lehrer, Keith, and Thomas Paxson, Jr. "Knowledge: Undefeated Justified True Belief." In Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 66, No. 8 (Apr. 24, 1969): 225-237.

Goldman, Alvin I. "Discrimination and Perceptual Knowledge." In Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 73, No. 20 (Nov. 18, 1976): 771-791.

Nozick, R. Philosophical Explanations. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1981, pp. 167-179, 188-196, 197-211, and 679-690.

Lewis, D. "Elusive Knowledge." In The Australasian Journal of Philosophy 74 (1996): 549-67.

Haslanger, S. "What is Knowledge and What Ought it to be: Feminist Values and Normative Epistemology." Feldman, pp. 86-90.
Belief
15-16 Can we have reasonable or justified beliefs? Empiricus, Sextus. "Outlines of Pyrrhonism." Excerpts from Hellinistic Philosophy Introductory Readings. 2nd edition. Translated by B. Inwood and L. P. Gerson. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1997, pp. 302-308, 316-317, 337-339, and 396-397.

Feldman. pp. 39-52, and 130-152.
17-18 Foundationalism Bonjour, L. "Can Empirical Knowledge Have a Foundation?" In American Philosophical Quarterly 15 (1978): 1-13.

Alston, W. "What's Wrong with Immediate Knowledge?" In Synthese 55 (1983): 73-95.
[Reprinted in W. Alston, Epistemic Justification. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1989, pp. 57-78.]

Feldman. pp. 52-60, and 70-78.
19-22 Reliabilism Goldman, A. "What is Justified Belief?" In Justification and Knowledge. G. Pappas, ed. Reidel, Dordrecht, 1979, pp 1-23.

Bonjour, L. "Externalist Theories of Empirical Knowledge." In Midwest Studies in Philosophy 5. P. A. French, T. E. Uehling and H. Wettstein, eds. (1980): 53-73.

Feldman. pp. 90-99, and 105-106.
23-26 Partial belief Ramsey, F. P. "Truth and Probability." In The Foundations of Mathematics and other Logical Essays. R. B. Braithwaite, ed. Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1926, chapter 7, pp. 156-198.

 

Recommended Readings

Knowledge

Can we know anything about the external world?

  • Unger, P. "A defense of skepticism." Philosophical Review 80 (1971): 198-219.

What is knowledge?

Williamson, T. Knowledge and its limits. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Belief

Can we have reasonable or justified beliefs?

  • Klein, P. Stanford Encyclopedia on Skepticism.
  • Barnes, J. The toils of Skepticism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
  • Annas, J. and J. Barnes. The Modes of Skepticism: ancient texts and modern interpretations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.

Foundationalism

  • Aristotle, Posterior Analytics , I.3 (Download from The Internet Classics Archive)
  • Bonjour, L. "The Dialectic of Foundationalism and Coherentism", in The Blackwell Guide to Epistemology. Edited by John Greco and Ernest Sosa. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999, pp. 117-143
  • Sosa, E. "The Raft and the Pyramid: Coherence versus foundations in the theory of knowledge." Midwest Studies in Philosophy, 5: 1980, 3-25.

Partial Belief

  • Skyrms, B. Choice and Chance. 4th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2000.
  • Jeffrey, R. The Logic of Decision. 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983.