LPHIL5229 Epistemology Course Descriptor

Course Overview

This course investigates the strand of philosophy concerned with our claims to knowledge and their justification. What is knowledge, and on what basis can we claim to have it? How, if at all, can global sceptical arguments to the effect that knowledge is unobtainable be defeated? What form does the justification of our beliefs take? The course explores these fundamental questions and the answers that have been given to them in the philosophical literature, as well as their wider ramifications for us today.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

Knowledge and Understanding

Subject Specific Skills

Transferable and Employability Skills

Teaching and Learning

This course has a dedicated Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) page with a syllabus and range of additional resources (e.g. readings, question prompts, tasks, assignment briefs, discussion boards) to orientate and engage students in their studies.

The scheduled teaching and learning activities for this course are:

Interactive lectures/seminars

40 scheduled hours – typically including induction, consolidation or revision, and assessment activity hours.

• Version 1:all sessions in the same sized group

OR

• Version 2: most of the sessions in larger groups; some of the sessions in smaller groups

Faculty hold regular ‘office hours’, which are opportunities for students to drop in or sign up to explore ideas, raise questions, or seek targeted guidance or feedback, individually or in small groups. 

Students are to attend and participate in all the scheduled teaching and learning activities for this course and to manage their directed learning and independent study.

Indicative total learning hours for this course: 150

Assessment

Both formative and summative assessment are used as part of this course, with purely formative opportunities typically embedded within interactive teaching sessions, office hours, and/or the VLE.

Summative Assessments

Further information about the assessments can be found in the Course Syllabus.

Feedback

Students will receive formative and summative feedback in a variety of ways, written (e.g. marked up on assignments, through email or the VLE) or oral (e.g. as part of interactive teaching sessions or in office hours).

Indicative Reading

Note: Comprehensive and current reading lists are produced annually in the Course Syllabus or other documentation provided to students; the indicative reading list provided below is for a general guide and part of the approval/modification process only.

• Audi, R. (2010) Epistemology: A Contemporary Introduction to the Theory of Knowledge, 3rd edition, Routledge.
• Feldman, R. (2003) Epistemology, Prentice Hall PTR.
• Greco, J. and E. Sosa (eds.) (1999) The Blackwell Guide to Epistemology, Oxford: Blackwell.
• Smith, Q. (ed.) (2008) Epistemology: New Essays, Oxford University Press.
• Sosa, E, J. Kim, J. Fantl and M. McGrath (eds.) (2008) Epistemology: An Anthology, Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
• Electronic resources
• PhilPapers: https://philpapers.org/
• PhilSci Archive: http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: https://plato.stanford.edu/

Indicative Topics

Note: Comprehensive and current topics for courses are produced annually in the Course Syllabus or other documentation provided to students; the indicative topics provided below is used as a general guide and part of the approval/modification process only.

• Foundationalism and coherentism
• The analysis of knowledge
• Internalism and externalism
• Scepticism
• Naturalised epistemology