< back Printer Version  

Class Detail:

FA 2012
Philosophy
PHIL 601 - Seminar in Theory of Knowledge
Section 001

Credits: 3
Waitlist Capacity: 10
Advisory Prerequisites: Graduate standing.
Repeatability: May not be repeated for credit.
Primary Instructor: Lormand,Eric P

 

(real time availability for all sections)

Epistemologists tend to look for standards governing either full-fledged "beliefs" (including knowledge, and beliefs about probabilities) or degreed "credences" (whether precise or rough). This course focuses on standards governing a neglected third kind of state, that we might call "guesses", akin to scientific "null hypotheses" or practical "working assumptions". We will consider the philosophical importance of best guesses: e.g., arguably without initially justified (as opposed, e.g., to wild) guesses we can justify little else in philosophy—neither ethical nor even epistemological standards, nor views about the external or even internal world, nor probability assignments (and credences) nor meaning assignments nor even logic. We will consider the psychological relations among guesses, beliefs, and credences. We will consider ways to justify "educated" guesses both in the presence of (what we might guess is) evidence, and "blind" guesses in the absence of evidence. And bracketing as much as possible that we have not yet been able to justify from scratch, we will try to reconstruct what best-but-blind guesses would be about evidence, logic, meanings, probabilities, minds, environments, and ethics.


Course Syllabi
Syllabi are available to current LSA students. IMPORTANT: These syllabi are provided to give students a general idea about the courses, as offered by LSA departments and programs in prior academic terms. The syllabi do not necessarily reflect the assignments, sequence of course materials, and/or course expectations that the faculty and departments/programs have for these same courses in the current and/or future terms.

Search for Syllabus

Textbooks/Other Materials (data maintained by department in Wolverine Access)
Note: Please use Wolverine Access Class Search to check for textbook information.

College of Literature, Science, and the Arts 500 S. State Street, Ann Arbor, MI  48109 © 2012 Regents of the University of Michigan