Epistemology Seminar
Self-Knowledge
Fall 2006
Course: PHIL 460
Time: Tues/Thur
2:55-4:10
Location: Uris Hall
GH24
Instructor: Nico Silins
Office: 219 Goldwin
Smith Hall
Office Hours:
Wednesday 4:30-6 or (easily) by
appointment
Email:
ns338@cornell.edu
Course Overview
This course has three
main
aims. We will consider how to
describe the extent of our introspective access to our own mental
states, how
to explain our introspective access to our own mental states, and we
will consider
why introspection might be important.
We will pay special attention to the cases of belief,
experience, and
action.
Readings
All of our readings
will available
on Blackboard or over email.
Evaluation
Two
Papers: 80%
Each
paper will be 10-12 pages long and will determine 40% of your grade.
Participation:
20%
The participation grade is based on your
overall
engagement with the course, including email responses to articles,
classroom
discussion, attendance individual meetings, and so on.
Policies
You must read the
assigned
material before class. The reading
assignments will sometimes be short but will always require careful
study. I strongly recommend reading each
assignment twice.
Late papers and
assignments will
be marked down by 1/3 of a letter grade for each day the paper is late
(e.g.,
from A- to B+, from B+ to B, and so on).
Extensions
will not be granted except in extreme circumstances.
You are encouraged to
discuss the
paper topics with each other, but be sure to acknowledge the source of
any idea
you use in your written work. For
the record: plagiarism is sufficient grounds for an F in the course.
8/24: Course
Introduction
Part I. The Scope
of Introspection
8/29, 8/31: Are we
always in a position to know
what mental state we're in?
Timothy
Williamson, Knowledge and its Limits, selection
Murali
Ramachandran, "Anti-Luminosity"
9/5, 9/7: Are we
always in a position to know what
relational mental state we're in?
Paul
Boghossian, "Content and Self-Knowledge"
Brian
McLaughlin and Michael Tye, "Is Content-Externalism Compatible with
Privileged Access?"
9/12, 9/14: Are we
ever in a position to know what
relational mental state we're in?
Paul
Boghossian, "What the Externalist Can Know A Priori"
Brian
McLauglin, "Externalism, Twin Earth, and Self-Knowledge"
9/19, 9/21:
Introspection and Begging the Question
Martin Davies,
"Externalism and
Armchair Knowledge"
Jessica Brown, Individualism and Self-Knowledge, selection
Part II. Inner
Sense and The Importance of
Introspection
9/26, 9/28: Against
Inner Sense
Shoemaker, "Self-Knowledge and Inner Sense", lectures 1 and 2
10/3, 10/5:
Introspection and Rationality
Tyler Burge, "Our
Entitlement to
Self-Knowledge"
Christopher
Peacocke, "Our Entitlement to Self-Knowledge: Entitlement, Self-
Knowledge, and
Conceptual
Redeployment"
10/12: Peacocke
Christopher Peacocke, Being
Known, selection
Aaron Zimmerman,
"Basic
Self-Knowledge: Answering Peacocke's Criticisms of Constitutivism"
First paper due on
Mon 10/16 by 5pm
Part III. The
Explanation of Introspection
10/17, 10/19:
Introspection and Deliberation
Richard
Moran, Authority and Estrangement, selection
10/24, 10/26: The
Transparency of Mental States
Alex
Byrne, "Introspection"
10/31, 11/2: The
Transparency of Experience
Gareth
Evans, The Varieties of Reference, selections
Christopher
Peacocke, "'Another I': Representing Conscious States, Perception,
and Others"
11/7, 11/9:
Transparency and Representationalism
Michael
Tye, "The Argument from Transparency"
Amy
Kind, "What's so Transparent about Transparency?"
11/14, 11/16:
Expressivism
Dorit Bar-On, Speaking
My Mind,
selection
11/21: Action
Elizabeth
Anscombe, Intention, selection
11/28, 11/30: Action
Continued
David
Velleman, Practical Reflection, selection
Final paper due at
5pm on Fri
12/1