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Lehrende: Sergiu Dorian Spatan
Veranstaltungsart:
Proseminar
Anzeige im Stundenplan:
Semesterwochenstunden:
2
Credits:
3,0
Unterrichtssprache:
Englisch
Min. | Max. Teilnehmerzahl:
1 | 30
Kontingentschema: Phil_Standard_WS1415
Weitere Informationen:
Für den erfolgreichen Besuch dieser Veranstaltung im Rahmen des Fachspezifischen Wahbereichs werden 3 LP angerechnet.
Kommentare/ Inhalte:
In a world overwhelmed by fake news and manipulation, in which political pundits talk about alternative facts, and many people have irreconcilable disagreements concerning vaccines, global warming, white and gold vs. black and blue dresses etc., it seems like epistemology’s place in our daily lives becomes more and more central, even if we are not always aware of this fact. Indeed, we are all jurors in the age of the internet, and we have to decide daily whether a particular piece of information passes the threshold of knowledge or not. Talking about evidence, justification, proofs, and truth has thus become ubiquitous not only in serious establishments like courts and newsrooms, but, most strikingly, in our daily interactions on social media and as citizens. It is therefore highly important to understand what epistemic justification is, and how we can identify good as opposed to bad evidence.
The purpose of this class is to explore the concept of epistemic justification. The seminar has two complementary objectives:
i) To investigate various understandings of justification, by analyzing and discussing classical and contemporary theories of justification (foundationalism and coherentism, internalism and externalism, reliabilism and virtue epistemology etc.).
ii) To develop the skills of analyzing philosophical arguments, by asking the students to reconstruct, criticize and defend various arguments from the literature on epistemic justification.
All students will have to make at least one presentation during the semester, in which they reconstruct an argument from the literature, and pass a required number of weekly quizzes, in order to fulfill the requirements of the Studienleistungen. In addition, the students that take the class for grade (Prüfungsleistung) will also have to write a 3000 paper, in which they reconstruct and criticize / defend an argument from the literature (while the quizzes also count for their final grade). The seminar is thus focused on giving the students the opportunity of working directly with arguments from the literature, and thus improve their skills of reconstructing, criticizing and defending philosophical arguments.
Literatur:
Literature:
BonJour, L. and E. Sosa. 2003. Epistemic Justification: Internalism vs. Externalism, Foundations vs. Virtues. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell.
Zusätzliche Hinweise zu Prüfungen:
Studienleistungen:
- Careful preparation of the texts – weekly quizzes
- One presentation per semester of a reconstructed argument
- Regular and active participation
Prüfungsleistung:
- Preparation of readings and active participation
- Weekly quizzes
- Around 3000 words Term Paper
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