Epistemology

In this course we will explore some of the central questions in epistemology and metaphysics. In epistemology, these questions will include: What is knowledge? What facts or states justify a belief? How can the threat of skepticism be adequately answered? How do we know what we (seem to) know about mathematics and morality? In metaphysics, these questions will include: What is time? What is the best account of personal identity across time? Do we have free will? We will also discuss how the construction of a theory of knowledge ought to relate to the construction of a metaphysical theory-roughly speaking, what comes first, epistemology or metaphysics? (B)

The being we will study in this course is a subject of thinking/judging and therefore in a sense, all things (Aristotle, De Anima), at the same time she is a determinable substance whose determinations include moods, sensations, feelings, intentions, actions. We shall explore the apparent tension between these two descriptions of our being - as a subject-being and as a substance-being - and search for an understanding that resolves it. Readings include sections from: Aristotle, Kant, Hegel. Sartre, Heidegger, Wittgenstein.

In this course, we will explore Western philosophy's rich skeptical tradition with an eye toward answering two surprisingly difficult questions: 'What is philosophy?' and 'What is skepticism?' The guiding thought (which goes back to the German philosopher G.W.F. Hegel) is that philosophy and skepticism are entwined to such an extent that the one can be properly understood only in relation to the other. We will endeavor to decide whether, or to what extent, this is true. Historical topics will include: the origins of philosophy, ancient skepticism, the reemergence of philosophy in medieval Europe, early-modern skepticism, and skepticism in Kant and post-Kantian German philosophy. Philosophical topics will include: fideism, relativity, disagreement, the Agrippan Trilemma, Cartesian skepticism, ethical skepticism, and sociopolitical skepticism. No prior familiarity with the history of skepticism - only a sense of wonder - will be assumed.

In this course, we will explore Western philosophy's rich skeptical tradition with an eye toward answering two surprisingly difficult questions: 'What is philosophy?' and 'What is skepticism?' The guiding thought (which goes back to the German philosopher G.W.F. Hegel) is that philosophy and skepticism are entwined to such an extent that the one can be properly understood only in relation to the other. We will endeavor to decide whether, or to what extent, this is true. Historical topics will include: the origins of philosophy, ancient skepticism, the reemergence of philosophy in medieval Europe, early-modern skepticism, and skepticism in Kant and post-Kantian German philosophy. Philosophical topics will include: fideism, relativity, disagreement, the Agrippan Trilemma, Cartesian skepticism, ethical skepticism, and sociopolitical skepticism. No prior familiarity with the history of skepticism - only a sense of wonder - will be assumed.

Despite intertwined histories and many shared practices, the contemporary humanities and sciences stand in relationships of contrast and opposition to one another. The perceived fissure between the "Two Cultures" has been deepened by the fact that the bulk of all history and philosophy of science has been devoted to the natural sciences. This seminar addresses the history and epistemology of what in the nineteenth century came to be called the "sciences" and the "humanities" since the Renaissance from an integrated perspective. The historical sources will focus on shared practices in, among others, philology, natural history, astronomy, and history. The philosophical source will develop an epistemology of the humanities: how humanists know what they know.

We will consider the nature of love, and the relationship among love, reasons, and reasoning. We will ask after the reasons that we have to love, the reasons that we have to act out of love and the relationship between these. We will investigate some familiar worries about the idea that love is responsive to reasons, conceived as arising from properties or features of the beloved. If it were, would it make sense to stop loving someone who lost the features in question? Would it make sense to "trade up," abandoning the person whom one loves for someone who better exemplifies these features? We will also consider the implications of the fact that love itself does not seem to be an attitude to which we could reason. In combination with the idea that it makes sense to act out of love, this seems to cause trouble for attempts to understood practical reasons reductively in terms of practical reasoning. So we will ask about what love tells us about the relationship between explicit practical reasoning and the reasons that we have to act. Does making sense of love require us to expand our conception of practical thinking beyond explicit reasoning? What implications, if any, does this have for moral thinking and reasoning?

This course will provide an introduction to Bayesian Epistemology. We will begin by discussing the principal arguments offered in support of the two main precepts of the Bayesian view: (1) Probabilism: A rational agent's degrees of belief ought to conform to the axioms of probability; and (2) Conditionalization: Bayes's Rule describes how a rational agent's degrees of belief ought to be updated in response to new information. We will then examine the capacity of Bayesianism to satisfactorily address the most well-known paradoxes of induction and confirmation theory. The course will conclude with a discussion of the most common objections to the Bayesian view. (B) (II)

In this course we will explore some of the central questions in epistemology and metaphysics. In epistemology, these questions will include: What is knowledge? What facts or states justify a belief? How can the threat of skepticism be adequately answered? How do we know what we (seem to) know about mathematics and morality? In metaphysics, these questions will include: What is time? What is the best account of personal identity across time? Do we have free will? We will also discuss how the construction of a theory of knowledge ought to relate to the construction of a metaphysical theory-roughly speaking, what comes first, epistemology or metaphysics? (B)

In this course we will explore some of the central questions in epistemology and metaphysics. In epistemology, these questions will include: What is knowledge? What facts or states justify a belief? How can the threat of skepticism be adequately answered? How do we know what we (seem to) know about mathematics and morality? In metaphysics, these questions will include: What is time? What is the best account of personal identity across time? Do we have free will? We will also discuss how the construction of a theory of knowledge ought to relate to the construction of a metaphysical theory—roughly speaking, what comes first, epistemology or metaphysics? (B)