PHIL 3170 Theory of Knowledge

People claim to know things. But how do they know what they claim to know? What is knowledge? Epistemology, one of the main branches of philosophy, is the study, development and critique of theories of knowledge. In this course we examine leading theories of knowledge from modern times to the present, including: methods for distinguishing the true from the false, justified vs. unjustified beliefs, warranted vs. unwarranted beliefs, evidence, validity, soundness, empirical and rational methodologies, and the scientific method. This study further involves traditional philosophical issues such as necessary vs. contingent truth, a priori and a posteriori knowledge, the analytic synthetic distinction, the synthetic a priori nature of mathematical and logical statements, and the perennial problem of skepticism. This is a writing intensive (WI) course. Prerequisite(s): PHIL 1100 OR PHIL 1120 OR PHIL 1500 OR PHIL 2200 OR PHIL 2320
Credits: 3.0