PHIL 228 - Epistemology

Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)

Epistemology is concerned with what knowledge is and what its limits are. What’s the difference between knowing something and just making a good guess? Do we gain knowledge about the world through our senses? Through reasoning? Through what others tell us? What makes something a good source of information, and how do we know? Who gets to decide what counts as knowledge? In the first part of the course we study historical and contemporary approaches to these questions. Then, we turn our attention to the emotions and knowledge. Sometimes emotions seem to be the enemy of reason and feel as if they are beyond our control. Then again, sometimes it seems like our ‘gut’ feeling is required for making moral choices. This part of the course asks how emotions might shape our knowledge, what we can learn from emotions, as well as how our understanding of emotion itself is shaped by the social world. Are emotions required for moral knowledge? What, if anything, can we learn about ourselves from our emotions? About the world? What roles do emotions play in constructing and maintaining systems of power, and how might this shape how we understand ourselves and our world? Kate Pendoley.

Prerequisite(s): One course in Philosophy, or permission of the instructor.

Two 75-minute periods.

Course Format: CLS