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 Contextualise theories of knowing in the context of the history of philosophy.
• — LO2 Trace a historical trajectory of the development of theories of knowledge.
• — LO3 Synthesise and critique argumentation from diverse philosophers.
• — LO4 Read and critically analyse complex philosophical argumentation.
• — LO5 Critically express a philosophical position on a major issue in philosophy.
• — LO6 Identify where the problems of modernity emerge concerning the mind-world relation.
• — LO7 Exhibit a knowledge of how to overcome the problems of modernity.