– Winter Term 1 2024, Online-Synchronous.
Through an in-depth study of classical and contemporary texts, this course explored fundamental questions in epistemology (the study of knowledge) such as: What is knowledge and what are its limits? How can we respond to skeptical arguments that deny that we have much, if any, knowledge at all? How do reason, sense perception and the testimony of others function as sources of knowledge? Can the norms we use to determine what counts as knowledge only be specified relative to social and cultural contexts (as epistemic relativism claims)? Moreover, can we understand knowledge – a norm-governed rational activity – as a natural process that can be explained by using the same basic principles we use to explain other natural processes such as digestion and crystallization (as naturalized epistemology tries to do)? To what extent can we cleanly distinguish between epistemic rationality (which is concerned with what we ought to believe) and practical rationality (which is concerned with how we ought to act in the world)?
After exploring knowledge as an individual achievement, the course explored knowledge as a social phenomenon. It did so by addressing questions such as: What, if any, is the relation between knowledge and power? How do social practices and institutions (e.g. democratic institutions and internet communities) support and hinder the production of knowledge? How can we assess the epistemic merits of technologies such as AI that are increasingly restructuring our collective epistemic environment (e.g. by creating and consolidating echo chambers, and by proliferating the flow of mis- and disinformation)? Does our increasing dependence on such technologies support or hinder the cultivation of our capacities as knowers? Moreover, do such technologies strengthen or corrode the fabric of trust that binds together our epistemic communities? Lastly, can groups (such as juries or research bodies) count as knowers in their own right? By studying knowledge as a social phenomenon, the course explored how we can apply epistemology to real-world issues.