PHIL 433.001 – Current Issues in Analytic Philosophy

Instructor: Alex Worsnip. This course meets W 1:00 – 3:30 p.m. in CW 213.

This course will focus on recent work in normative epistemology: that is, epistemology as structured around the question “what ought I to believe?” (as opposed to “what is knowledge?”). Topics will include some (but probably not all) of the following: the relationship between (full) belief and credence; whether pragmatic and moral considerations bear on what we ought to believe; epistemic consequentialism and its critics; whether logic supplies norms for belief and reasoning; the nature of coherence and consistency norms on belief; the bearing of peer disagreement and higher-order evidence on rational belief; whether epistemic norms are (ever) permissive.

This class is designed to be appropriate for graduate students, and undergraduate enrollment is by permission of the instructor only. Undergraduates should have taken several prior courses in philosophy, preferably including at least one class in epistemology (e.g. PHIL 140, 230 or 335) and at least one class in theoretical ethics (e.g. PHIL 160, 362 or 462).