Course:PHIL240/2011WT1-section2/Syllabus

PHIL240 Fall 2011 see also http://www.fernieroad.ca/a/UBC/teaching.html for a prettier version.

PHIL240 Fall 2011 Syllabus

professor: Adam Morton am.phil240@gmail.com - please use this email address for messages about the course. office: Buchanan E275. office hours: Tues 2:30-3:30 (tentative, may change.)
time & place: Tues, Thurs 12:30 - 2 , Buchanan A 103

aims of the course
To explain the motivations behind ideas about knowledge and justified belief that have been important in the history of philosophy and how these ideas have changed in the past decades. It is important also to consider ideas about evidence that play a big role in modern life but which epistemology has not paid a lot of attention to. I want students in the course to develop their own opinions on all these things, so active participation is essential.

Forums
Each week there will be a forum on the UBC wiki site for the course. Everyone is encouraged to contribute, but members of the group for that week have to contribute. (See grading, below, and the weekly schedule.) There are six groups, so members of each should take part in two forums. The groups are

group 1: last names A-D
group 2: last names E-H
group 3: last names I-L
group 4: last names M-P
group 5: last names Q-U
group 6: last names V-Z

Forum contributions should be made before the Tuesday class of the relevant week.

schedule and reading week-by-week.
A topic usually begins on the Tuesday and then continues, with discussion, on the Thursday. Note that some weeks have more reading than others, so it makes sense to begin reading for this week earlier.   I have marked these weeks with a **. On several of the topics there are additional optional (and in one case required) readings (besides the invisible gorilla book) available on the web. Links are on the web-site. Many of these readings are from the valuable online Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, henceforth SEP. I have marked these weeks with a ++. Some of these SEP aticles are harder than the other reading for the course; if you tackle one and find it confusing, stop and ignore it. Note that there are questions at the end of the chapters of a guide through the theory of knowledge, and I may ask some of these questions in class and in the quizzes.

September 8 (Thursday): organisation, epistemology
what epistemology is and what this course will cover. mechanics of the course.

September 13 - 15: truth, knowledge, evidence
reading: a guide through the theory of knowledge, chapter 1 sections 1-4
group 1 contributes to the forum for this week.

September 20 - 22: the evidentialism debate
** reading:   Clifford and James, on the website
group 2 contributes to the forum for this week.

September 27 - 29:   scepticism, dogmatism, testimony
reading: guide chapter 1 section 5, the invisible gorilla ch 2 ++ SEP scepticism article.
group 3 contributes to the forum for this week.

October 4 -6: perception - the traditional picture
reading: guide   chapter 2, sections 1-3   ++ SEP perception article
group 4 contributes to the forum for this week.

October 6 : SHORT ANSWER TEST (30 minutes)

October 11 -13 : perception - the truth
reading: guide ch 2 , sections 4-6 ,   the invisible gorilla ch 1 (2)
group 5 contributes to the forum for this week.

October 18 - 20 : inductive reasoning
reading: guide ch 4 sections 1-6 , gorilla ch 5, ++ SEP induction article
group 6 contributes to the forum for this week.

October 25: the inference to the best explanation
reading: guide ch 4 sections 7-9, ++ SEP abduction article
group 1 contributes to the forum for this week.

October 27: *****MIDTERM EXAMINATION*****

November 1 - 3 : foundationalism and coherentism
** reading: guide ch 5, Sosa 'the raft and the pyramid': link on web site and elsewhere
group 2 contributes to the forum for this week.

November 8 - 10: apriori knowledge
reading: guide ch 3 , ++ SEP apriori knowledge and justification article
group 3 contributes to the forum for this week.

November 15 - 17: knowledge
reading: guide ch 6 , ++ SEP analysis of knowledge article
group 4 contributes to the forum for this week.

November 17: short answer test plus in-class essay outline (40 minutes)

November 22 - 24: internalism/externalism
reading: guide ch 7 , ++ SEP internalist vs externalist conceptions article
group 5 contributes to the forum for this week.

November 29 - December 1: knowing how much we know
reading: guide ch 11, gorilla chs 3, 4
group 6 contributes to the forum for this week.

*****FINAL EXAMINATION*****
(during the exam period, 6th-20th December)

requirements and grading
There will be a mid-term and a final or essay. The mid-term will have a number of questions, some of them requiring very short answers. The final will require essay answers, but in the essay outline session on 17 November you will prepare the outline of a couple of the essays. You must write the final exam unless we give permission to write an essay, on the basis of your outline. (You may still choose to take the exam instead.)
There will be a weekly forum on the UBC wiki. Anyone can take part, but the class will be divided into groups and each week the people in one group will have to contribute.
The grade for the course will be 40% final exam or essay, 20% mid-term, 15% for each of the short answer tests, and 10% for forum participation.

materials
Most of the required readings, including the central text - Adam Morton a guide through the theory of knowledge - will be available on the site, via a link or a free download. ( <a href="http://www.fernieroad.ca/a/PHIL240/morton-guide.pdf">http://www.fernieroad.ca/a/PHIL240/morton-guide.pdf </a>   should do it.) The text will also be available in printed form in the university bookstore. There will be books on reserve in the library. One book, on reserve and in the bookstore - the invisible gorilla - is strongly recommended but not required.

two details
- If you email me it is best to use am.phil240@gmail.com for messages about this course. If your email address does not identify you please sign your email with your full name. "cleverkid@wizz.ca" doesn't tell me who you are.
- Do not make any plans to be away during the exam period after classes until the schedule is published. There will not be make-up exams because of ski trips and so on.

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