Mondays, Weeks 1-5 Lecturer: Robert Northcott () In these five weeks we’ll explore some central and famous issues in epistemology. The first reading each week is the primary reading, the second the supplementary one. All readings will be available either as pdf files on the course Moodle page, freely online as indicated, or via Birkbeck library’s access. Any reading without a specific citation may also be found in standard anthologies, copies of which are available in Birkbeck library: Sven Bernecker and Fred Dretske (ed.) Knowledge: Readings in Contemporary Epistemology; and Ernest Sosa et al (eds) Epistemology: An Anthology. Week 1: Scepticism Rene Descartes, Meditation I-II, in his Meditations on First Philosophy GE Moore, 1939, ‘Proof of an External World’, in his Philosophical Papers (Allen & Unwin, 1959). Study Skills Session: How to Read Philosophy Jim Pryor, ‘On how to read a philosophy article’, available online at: . Week 2: The definition of knowledge Edmund Gettier, 1963, ‘Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?’ Analysis 23: 121-123. Linda Zagzebski, 1994, ‘The Inescapability of Gettier Problems’, Philosophical Quarterly 44: 65-73. Week 3: Agreeing to disagree Jennifer Lackey, “What Should We Do When We Disagree?” Oxford Studies in Epistemology, ed. John Hawthorne and Tamar Gendler (Oxford, 2008). Thomas Kelly, “The Epistemic Significance of Disagreement,” Oxford Studies in Epistemology, ed. John Hawthorne and Tamar Gendler (Oxford, 2005). Week 4: Induction Bertrand Russell, ‘On Induction’ Hans Reichenbach, ‘The Pragmatic Justification of Induction’ Week 5: Epistemology and science WVO Quine, ‘Epistemology Naturalized’ Jaegwon Kim, ‘What is Naturalized Epistemology?’ II. ETHICS
Thursdays, Weeks 6-10 Lecturer: Susan James () We often assume that our political life depends on, and is organised within, the state. But what is a state, what is the basis of its authority, and how far does its authority extend? This module will address these questions. Each class will be structured around the work of a historical author whose ideas continue to exert a significant influence on contemporary philosophical debate. Preliminary Reading David Miller, Political Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction Will Kymicka, Contemporary Political Philosophy: An Introduction Ian Hampsher Monk, History of Modern Political Thought: Major Political Thinkers from Hobbes to Marx Week 6: What is the State?  Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan [many editions], Introduction and chs. 13-16. Supplementary Reading:  Quentin Skinner, ‘Hobbes and the Purely Artificial Person of the State’, Journal of Political Philosophy Philosophy 7(1999). There’s a revised version of this paper in Skinner, Visions of Politics vol. III (Cambridge University Press, 2002).  Robert Nozick, Anarchy State and Utopia, ch. 2, pp. 10-25. Study Skills Session: How to Write an MA Dissertation in Philosophy  Jean Jacques Rousseau, Idea of the Method in the Composition of a Book in Rousseau: The Discourses and Other Early Political Writings ed V. Gourevitch (Cambridge University Press, 1997), pp. 300-304. Week 7: Consent as the Basis of the State  John Locke, Second Treatise of Government, chs. 1-4, chs. 7-9. Supplementary Reading: Michael Davis, Michael, “Locke's Political Society: Some Problems of Terminology in Two Treatises of Government”, Journal of Moral Philosophy 2014, vol. 11: 209–231. Week 8: Political and Patriarchal Power Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, chs. 19 and 20. John Locke, Second Treatise of Government, ch. 6. Supplementary Reading Teresa Brennan and Carole Pateman, ‘Mere Auxiliaries to the Commonwealth: Women and the Origins of Liberalism’, Political Studies vol. 27.2 (1979), 183-200. Week 9: The Exploitative State Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto