Course Information
Course title
 Epistemology 
Semester
 109-1 
Designated for
 COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS  DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY  
Instructor
 Nihel Jhou 
Curriculum Number
 Phl2063 
Curriculum Identity Number
 104 47300 
Class
  
Credits
 3.0 
Full/Half
Yr.
 Half 
Required/
Elective
 Preassign 
Time
 Tuesday 7,8,9,10(14:20~18:20) 
Remarks
 The upper limit of the number of students: 100. 
Ceiba Web Server
 http://ceiba.ntu.edu.tw/1091Phl2063_ 
Course introduction video
 
Table of Core Capabilities and Curriculum Planning
 Table of Core Capabilities and Curriculum Planning
Course Syllabus
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Course Description

One major difference between philosophy and other disciplines is that, while the latter studies particular areas of knowledge, the former focuses on human knowledge as a whole. Epistemology is concerned with the essence, origins, limits, and structures of knowledge. We will discuss the following topics:
1. Descartes’ Epistemology
2. The Standard Analysis
3. The Problem of Induction
4. A Priori Justification and Knowledge
5. Agrippa’s Trilemma
6. Experience and Reality
7. Foundationalism and Coherentism
8. Internalism and Externalism
9. Evidence and Entitlement
10. Knowledge in Context
11. Seeing and Knowing
12. Scepticism and Epistemic Priority
13. Self-knowledge
14. Privileged Access
15. Theories of self-awareness 

Course Objective
 1.Guiding students to think about the important issues in contemporary epistemology.
2. Enhancing students’ reading and writing capacities of philosophy. 
Course Requirement
 1. Students are required to finish the weekly reading assignment before each class. You will spend significant time in reading and thinking each week. In this course, you are expected to make efforts to read the texts closely, think critically, and write clearly. Hopefully, your efforts will be intellectually rewarding.
2. Those who miss 3 classes, Mid-term Exam, or Final Exam will be failed. 
Student Workload (expected study time outside of class per week)
  
Office Hours
 Appointment required. 
Designated reading
 1. Michael Williams, Problems of Knowledge: a Critical Introduction to Epistemology, Oxford University Press, 2001.
2. Laurence BonJour, Epistemology: Classic Problems and Contemporary Responses, Rowman & Littlefield Publisher Inc., 2002.
3. Brie Gertler, Self-Knowledge, Routledge, 2011. 
References
 1. Richard Feldman, Epistemology, Prentice Hall, 2003.
2. Michael Huemer, Skepticism and the Veil of Perception, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2001.
3. Matthias Steup and Ernest Sosa (eds.) Contemporary Debates in Epistemology, Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2005.
面談時間 另約時間
 
Grading
  
No.
Item
%
Explanations for the conditions
1. 
 In-Class Essay Assignments 
40% 
  
2. 
 Pre-Lecture Quizzes 
15% 
  
3. 
 Group Discussion/Presentation 
15% 
  
4. 
 Attendance & Participation 
10% 
  
5. 
 Take-Home Short Essay Assignments 
20% 
  
 
Progress
Week
Date
Topic
Week 1
 9/15  ■Introduction
■Gettier’s Problem
● Gettier, “Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?”  
Week 2
 9/22  ● Zagzebski, “The Inescapability of Gettier Problems”
■Agrippan Skepticism
● Williams, “The Agrippan Argument,” in Problems of Knowledge  
Week 3
 9/29  ■1st Group Discussion and Presentation  
Week 4
 10/06  ■Cartesian Skepticism
● Descartes, “Meditations on First Philosophy”(1st&2nd)
● Moore, “Proof of an External World” & “Certainty”  
Week 5
 10/13  ■Epistemic Closure
● Nozick, “Knowledge and Skepticism”
● Sosa, “How to Defeat Opposition to Moore” 
Week 6
 10/20  ■The Problem of Induction
● Williams, “Induction,” in Problems of Knowledge  
Week 7
 10/27  ■2nd Group Discussion and Presentation  
Week 8
 11/03  ■1st In-Class Essay Assignment  
Week 9
 11/10  ■What’s the Source of Justification?
● Chisholm, “The Myth of the Given”
● Sellars, “Does Empirical Knowledge Have a Foundation?”  
Week 10
 11/17  ● Davidson, “A Coherence Theory of Truth and Knowledge” ● Haack, “A Foundherentist Theory of Empirical Justification”  
Week 11
 11/24  ■Externalism v.s. Internalism
● Goldman, “What Is Justified Belief?”
● Feldman & Conee, “Evidentialism”  
Week 12
 12/01  ■3rd Group Discussion and Presentation  
Week 13
 12/08  ■Contextualism
● DeRose, “Solving the Skeptical Problem”
● Schiffer, “Contextualist Solutions to Scepticism”  
Week 14
 12/15  ■Intuition
● Benacerraf, “Mathematical Truth”
● Chudnoff, “The Nature of Intuitive Justification”  
Week 15
 12/22  ■4th Group Discussion and Presentation  
Week 16
 12/29  ■2nd In-Class Essay Assignment  
Week 17
 1/05  TBA  
Week 18
 1/12  TBA