PHI 315

Knowledge and Reality

Class Outline:

1.  Epistemology: the nature and scope of knowledge and justification 

• Descartes, Meditations I-III (CWP 345-364)
• Locke, Book IV (CWP 544-562)
• Gettier, ìIs Knowledge Justified True Belief?î (RES)
• Goldman, "What is Justified Belief?"  (NE 105-130)
• Kornblith, "Beyond Foundationalism and the Coherence Theory" (NE 131-146)
• Kitcher, "A Priori Knowledge" (NE 147-166)

 

2.  Hume and the problem of induction

• Hume, Enquiry, Sects I-IV (CWP 628-642)

3.  Responses to the problem of induction (Hume, Kant, Inductivist, Pragmatist, Dissolution)

• Hume, Enquiry, Sect. V (CWP 643-650)
• Black, Problems of Analysis, Ch XI (RES)
• Reichenbach, ìThe Pragmatic Justification of Inductionî (RES)
• Strawson, Introduction to Logical Theory, Ch. 9, Section II (248-263) (RES)
• Salmon, The Foundations of Scientific Inference, Chs. I-II. (RES)

4.  Goodmanís New Riddle of Induction and responses

• Goodman, Fact, Fiction and Forecast, Ch. III ìThe New Riddle of Induction (RES)

5.  Natural kinds and essentialism

• Aristotle, Categories (CWP 178-182)
• Locke, (CWP 534-544)

6.  Quine on natural kinds 

• Quine, ìNatural Kindsî (NE 57)

7.  Quine on naturalized epistemology

• Quine, ìEpistemology Naturalizedî (NE 15)
• Kim, ìWhat is ëNaturalized Epistemologyí?î (NE 33)
• Kornblith, ìWhat is Naturalistic Epistemology?î (NE 1)

8.  Kornblith on the natural kinds and inductive inference

• Inductive Inference and its Natural Ground, Chs 1-5

9.  Naturalized epistemology and rationality

• Stich, ìCould Man be an Irrational Animal?î (NE 337)