meeting

Wednesday 7–9:50 p.m., Pearsons 203

instructors

texts

John Hawthorne, Knowledge & Lotteries, available at Huntley Bookstore

online articles, see the readings page.

Our topic this semester is the skeptical challenge. Skepticism is the view that we don't know many of the things we take ourselves to know. We'll watch a scene from The Matrix on the first day of class; a skeptic might raise the challenge, "how do you know you're not in the Matrix? And if you don't know you're not in the Matrix, doesn't it follow that you know only very little?" We'll be looking at recent work that attempts to raises or respond to the skeptical challenge.

Our intention is to run this course like a graduate seminar. Each week we will examine two to three papers in detail (typically we'll discuss one paper for about half the session, take a break, and then turn to the others).

weekly requirements

Regular participation in discussion is encouraged and expected. For two out of every four sessions, prepare a brief note (one to two pages) on the week's reading. The notes should be emailed to us by Monday evening.

Your note will be a précis of some material from the reading. A précis might focus on a single article or a section of a single article; it might take up instead an issue or argument discussed in one or more of the articles. Either way, your note should present the gist of the article, section, issue, or argument. These notes should also include your thoughts on the matter: an issue or distinction you think needs clarification, or some original comment, question, or objection.[1]

paper requirements

You have two options:

• Two roughly eight page papers; the first will be due at the beginning of March
• One twelve to fifteen page paper

To help you write your final paper, a report (roughly four pages) will be due in the 11th or 12th week of the semester. Your report will contain your original thoughts on a topic, which may take the form of a critique or discussion of some article, or of some argument or position developed in one or more of the articles.

[1] We may increase the number of notes required if only a few students regularly contribute to discussions.