LPHIL7256 Rationality and Reasoning Course Descriptor

Course Overview

This course investigates the nature of knowledge, justification and rational belief. It will do this in the context of scientific inquiry, and also in the context of ordinary information consumers, embedded in a socially and technologically complex world.

The course aims to develop students’ skills in understanding and evaluating accounts of knowledge, justification, rationality and evidence. It will do this via some key texts in traditional epistemology, in social or applied epistemology and in the Philosophy of science. The course topics will vary each year, but below are some indicative questions that may be studied and discussed: What is the nature of epistemic justification? Does rationality require us to reduce our confidence in cases of peer disagreement? Are echo chambers or misinformation a danger to democracy? How does generative AI amplify the threat of misinformation? What is the role of observation, theory and evidence in scientific research? What is the nature of scientific explanation? Can machines possess agency? What can Bayes’ Theorem teach us about rational belief revision?

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 a range of additional resources (e.g. readings, question prompts, tasks, assignment briefs, and discussion boards) to orientate and engage students in their studies.

Teaching and learning strategies for this course will include:

• Lectures: Instructor-led classes.
• Seminars/workshops: Interactive sessions on project management principles, focused on applying theoretical concepts.
• Experiential Learning, which may include simulations and role-playing for hands-on experience, or guest speakers for insight from professionals.
• Online Resources: Flexible learning with additional study materials.

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, including a minimum of 16.5 scheduled hours

Employability Skills

The study of philosophy cultivates skills that are employable across a range of sectors. These include the abilities to:

• Work independently, creatively, and to deadlines.
• Conduct research and explore relevant existing knowledge.
• Analyse, contextualise, and interpret complex ideas and materials.
• Synthesise and evaluate information against a backdrop of uncertainty.
• Solve problems through logical reasoning.
• Present findings and opinions in a clear, structured manner, whether orally or in writing.
• Engage in collaborative and constructive discussion.

Assessment

Formative

Students will be formatively assessed during the course by means of set assignments. These do not count towards the end of year results, but will provide students with developmental feedback, both written and oral.

Summative

Assessment will be in one form:

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.

Bradley, Darren (2015) A Critical Introduction to Formal epistemology, London: Bloomsbury

Curd, M. and S. Psillos (eds.) (2008) The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Science, New York, NY: Routledge.

Dretske, F. 1999. “Machines, plants and animals: The origins of agency.” Erkenntnis 51: 523–535.

Lackey, Jennifer (2008) Learning from words: testimony as a source of knowledge, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Thagard, Paul (2024) Falsehoods Fly: Why Misinformation Spreads and How to Stop It. Columbia University Press.

Ball, Brian (2021) ‘Defeating Fake News: On Journalism, Knowledge, and Democracy’. Moral Philosophy and Politics, 8: 5-26.

Nguyen, C. Thi (2020) ‘Echo chambers and epistemic bubbles’. Episteme, 17: 141-161.

Srinivasan, Amia (2020) ‘Radical Externalism’. Philosophical Review, 129 (3):395-431.

van Wietmarschen, Han (2013) ‘Peer Disagreement, Evidence, and Well-Groundedness’. Philosophical Review, 122: 395-425.

Indicative Topics

• Traditional debates in epistemology
• Social and applied epistemology
• Philosophy of science
• Bayes’ Theorem and rational belief revision

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