Assessment

Seminar presentation 10%, oral exam 30%, final exam 60%

Module Aims

This module will be a study in what it is to know. It will be divided roughly into two parts. The first part will consider theories of knowledge which hold that in order to grasp what knowledge is, we need some sort of account of the knower; and so on these accounts, we do epistemology after we have done metaphysics. The second part will consider theories of knowledge that hold that we must grasp what knowing is before we consider what the knower (or anything else) is; and so on these accounts we do epistemology before we do any other branch of philosophy. Significant thinkers included in this module are: Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Descartes, Hume, Kant.

Learning Outcomes

• — LO1 Recognise theories of knowing in the history of philosophy.
• — LO2 Articulate the development of theories of knowledge.
• — LO3 Discuss the argumentation from diverse range of philosophers.
• — LO4 Read and analyse complex philosophical argumentation.
• — LO5 Express a philosophical position on the nature of knowledge.
• — LO6 Identify where the problems of modernity.