Topics in epistemology
Description
The key focus of this course is the notion of evidence in epistemology. We will begin by tackling foundational questions about evidence, such as: what is the nature of evidence? What’s the difference between perceptual and testimonial evidence? What is evidential support? How does evidence relate to belief, knowledge, epistemic justification and rationality? Then, we will proceed to consider some interesting applications of current epistemological theories of evidence. We will take a closer look at various versions of a paradox which has generate much discussion in contemporary epistemology – the lottery paradox. We will also touch on related issues pertaining to legal evidence, standards of proof, scepticism, and conspiracy theories.
Course plan
This reading list and schedule are tentative, and there will likely be some minor changes in both. However, this should give you a good enough idea of what you can expect from the course.
Week 1: The Nature of Evidence: Evidential Internalism and Evidential Externalism
Fratantonio, Giada (2024). Evidential Internalism and Evidential Externalism. In Maria Lasonen-Aarnio & Clayton Littlejohn (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy of Evidence. New York, NY: Routledge.
Week 2: Evidence and Doxastic Attitudes: Permissivism and Uniqueness
Horowitz, Sophie; Dogramaci, Sinan & Schoenfield, Miriam (2024). Are You Now or Have You Ever Been an Impermissivist? --- A conversation among friends and enemies of epistemic freedom. In Contemporary Debates in Epistemology, Third Edition.
Week 3: Evidence and Epistemic Justification: Evidentialism
Assigned reading: Beddor, Bob (2024). Prospects for evidentialism. In Maria Lasonen-Aarnio & Clayton Littlejohn (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy of Evidence. Routledge.
Week 4: Perceptual Evidence: Seemings
Assigned reading: Lasonen-Aarnio, Maria; Huemer, Michael (2024). Does Fundamental Evidence Consist in Seemings? In Contemporary Debates in Epistemology, Third Edition.
Week 5: Testimonial Evidence: Reductionism and Anti-Reductionism
Fricker, Elizabeth; Goldberg, Sandford (2024). Is Testimony a Basic Source of Justification? In Contemporary Debates in Epistemology, Third Edition.
Week 6: Evidential Support: Risk Minimisation and Normalcy
Smith, Martin (2010). What Else Justification Could Be. Noûs 44 (1):10-31.
Week 7: Statistical Evidence: The Lottery Paradox in Epistemology
Nelkin, Dana K. (2000). The lottery paradox, knowledge, and rationality. Philosophical Review 109 (3):373-409.
Week 8: Statistical Evidence: The Proof Paradox in the Law
Thomson, Judith (1986). Liability and Individualized Evidence. Law and Contemporary Problems, 49(3), 199–219.
Week 9: Statistical Evidence: Experimental Epistemology
Ebert, Philip; Smith, Martin & Durbach, Ian (2018). Lottery judgments: A philosophical and experimental study. Philosophical Psychology 31 (1):110-138.
Week 10: Evidence and Conspiracy Theories
Napolitano, M. Giulia (2021). Conspiracy Theories and Evidential Self-Insulation. In Sven Bernecker, Amy K. Flowerree & Thomas Grundmann (eds.), The Epistemology of Fake News. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. pp. 82-105.
Week 11: Essay clinic and short presentations
Methodology
In terms of skills, this course offers the opportunity to develop three core skills for a successful academic career in philosophy: reading, discussing and writing philosophy.
The classes are discussion-based. Before proceeding with the assigned reading, in the first session I will introduce the methodology and the topics of the course. The other ten sessions are held as a seminar. This means that students need to do the following: (1) read the texts assigned for each session; (2) carefully prepare for the seminar; (3) actively participate in class discussions.
Assessment
Research paper: 80%
• 2500 words (reference included).
• Students should send me an abstract (150/200 words) two weeks before the deadline.
Reading questions: 10%
• Before each session, I will provide a set of reading questions that will help the students to make the most of the assigned readings.
• Students are expected to write a short answer (roughly 100 words) to two questions and send them to me two days before the seminar.
Short presentation: 10%
• In the last session, students are expected to give a short 10-minute presentation on the topic and structure of their research paper.