Epistemology: Knowledge and the Danger of Error

Spring 2012

Course: PHIL 6610

Time: W 4:30-6:30

Instructor: Assistant Professor Nico Silins

Office: 219 Goldwin Smith Hall

Office Hours: T 2:45-3:45 or (easily) by appointment

Email: ns338@cornell.edu

Course Description

A survey of ways in which possibilities of error can disrupt the possession of knowledge and the acquisition of knowledge through inference. Case studies will include skepticism, vagueness and knowledge of meaning, knowledge of the future, disagreement, knowledge of logic, knowledge of morality, perceptual knowledge, the unreliability of memory and eyewitness testimony.

Required Texts

All readings will be available on Blackboard or elsewhere online.

Requirements

• A weekly email to me, due at noon on the day of class. This email should respond to the readings of the week, in roughly 100 to 200 words.

• A short critical paper of 7-10 pages, due in the middle of the semester.

• A rough draft and final version of a 15-20 page term paper, due at the end of the semester.

Policies

I will readily accommodate religious holidays and disabilities, but please give me advance notice of any such accommodation you might need.

Readings (subject to change)

1/25: Introduction

2/1: Nozick on Knowledge

Nozick, Philosophical Explanations, selection

Williamson, Knowledge and its Limits, selection

2/8: Sosa on Safety and Skepticism

Sosa, “How to Defeat Opposition to Moore”

Sosa, “Dreams and Philosophy”

2/15: Safety, Vagueness, and Knowledge of Language

Williamson, Vagueness, selection

Kearns and Magidor, “Epistemicism about Vagueness and Meta-Linguistic Safety”

2/22: Closure and Belief

Christensen, Putting Logic in Its Place, selection

2/29: Multi-Premise Closure and Knowledge

Hawthorne and Lasonen-Aarnio, “Knowledge and Objective Chance”

+Williamson reply

3/7: Single-Premise Closure and Knowledge

Lasonen-Aarnio, “Single Premise Deduction and Risk”

Schechter, “Rational Self-Doubt and the Failure of Closure”

3/14: Disagreement

Kelly, “Peer Disagreement and Higher Order Evidence”

Christensen, “The Epistemology of Disagreement: The Good News”

Elga, “Reflection and Disagreement”

*****First paper due on 3/16*****

SPRING BREAK, no class on 3/21

3/28: Higher Order Evidence

Christensen, “Higher Order Evidence”, “Rational Reflection”

Lasonen-Aarnio, “Unreasonable Knowledge”

4/4: Knowledge of Logic

Schechter, “The Reliability Challenge and the Epistemology of Logic”, “Could Evolution Explain our Reliability about Logic?”

4/11: Knowledge of Morality

Street, “A Darwinian Dilemma for Realist Theories of Value”

Vavova, “Debunking Evolutionary Debunking”

4/18: Perceptual Knowledge, I

Sperling, “The Information Available in Brief Visual Presentations”, selection

Block, “Consciousness, Accessibility, and the Mesh Between Psychology and Neuroscience”

Smithies, “Mentalism and Epistemic Transparency”

4/25: Perceptual Knowledge, II

Stazicker, “Attention, Visual Knowledge, and Psychophysics”

Block, “Attention and Mental Paint”, selection

Carrasco, TBA

5/2: Memory and Testimony

Michaelian, “Generative Memory”

Michaelian, “The Information Effect: Constructive Memory, Testimony, and Epistemic Luck”

Simons, The Invisible Gorilla, selection

*****Draft of final paper due on 5/9 *****

*****Revised final paper due on 5/21*****