University of Essex

PY109-4-AU-CO:
Introduction to Epistemology

The details

Year: 2024/25

Department: Philosophical, Historical, and Interdisciplinary Studies (School of)

Campus: Colchester Campus

Term: Autumn

Level: Undergraduate: Level 4

Status: Current

Start date: Thursday 03 October 2024

End date: Friday 13 December 2024

Credits: 15

Last updated: 23 February 2024

Requisites for this module

Pre-requisites: (none)

Co-requisites: (none)

Pre and / or co-requisites: (none)

Prohibited modules: PY111

Key module (requisite for): (none)

Key module for

(none)

Module description

This module encourages students to reflect on what kind of knowers they want to be and what kind of knowledge community they want to belong to.

The module begins by considering why we possess the concept of knowledge at all. What good is it? What does it do for us? It will then explore some recent work in social epistemology, reflecting on how knowledge is an interpersonal phenomenon, focusing on the phenomena of echo chambers, epistemic injustice, and the role of trust in our knowledge practices.

Module aims

The aims of this module are:

To explain some of the major approaches to virtue and vice epistemology, social epistemology, and political epistemology, as well as to questions about selfhood and identity, and to theorising about such challenges.

To analyse critically the debates surrounding them.

Module learning outcomes

By the end of this module, students will be expected to be able to:

Articulate certain philosophical problems in the areas studied.

Expound and critically evaluate some responses to these problems.

Employ their powers of philosophical argument and analysis in written work.

Module information

The module will also explore political epistemology, looking at how politics shapes knowledge production and vice versa; we will focus in particular here on propaganda and belief polarization.

Finally, we turn our attention to virtue and vice epistemology, which study the so-called virtues and vices of the mind. We will discuss important epistemic virtues that can help us flourish as knowers, e.g., self-reflection and intellectual humility; and we will also read about epistemic vices that undermine our capacity to acquire knowledge, e.g., closed-mindedness and dogmatism.

By the end of the module, students will better understand how individual, social, and political factors interact in the human pursuit of knowledge.

Learning and teaching methods

This module will be delivered via:

One 1-hour lecture per week.
One 1-hour class/seminar per week where issues from the lecture will be discussed in smaller groups.

There will also be a Reading Week when no teaching will take place, exact week to be confirmed.

Bibliography

Matthew, Queloz (2021) Our most abstract concepts emerged as solutions to our needs. Edited by Sam Dresser. Aeon. Available at: https://aeon.co/essays/our-most-abstract-concepts-emerged-as-solutions-to-our-needs.
Michael Patrick Lynch (2021) The Value of Truth. Boston Review. Available at: https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/the-value-of-truth/.
Nguyen, C.T. (2018) Why it’s as hard to escape an echo chamber as it is to flee a cult. Aeon. Available at: https://aeon.co/essays/why-its-as-hard-to-escape-an-echo-chamber-as-it-is-to-flee-a-cult.
Hi-Phi Nation and Lam, B. (2018) ‘Chamber of Facts’. The Slate Group. Available at: https://hiphination.org/complete-season-two-episodes/s2-episode-10-chamber-of-facts/.
Levy, N. (2023) ‘Bad beliefs – a precis’, Philosophical Psychology, 36(4), pp. 772–777. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/09515089.2022.2108390.
Levy, N. (no date) ‘Partisan worlds: Left and right don’t occupy different realities’, IAI News: An Online Magazine of Big Ideas [Preprint], (88). Available at: https://iai.tv/articles/partisan-worlds-auid-1548.
Herman, E.S. and Chompsky, N. (2002) Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media. New York, US: Pantheon Books. Available at: https://app.kortext.com/Shibboleth.sso/Login?entityID=https://idp0.essex.ac.uk/shibboleth&target=https://app.kortext.com/borrow/1927367.
Nguyen, C.T. (2021) ‘Polarization or Propaganda?’, Boston Review [Preprint]. Available at: http://bostonreview.net/politics-philosophy-religion/c-thi-nguyen-polarization-or-propaganda.
Mullen, A. (2009) ‘The Propaganda Model after 20 Years: Interview with Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky’, Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture, 6(2), pp. 12–22. Available at: https://doi.org/10.16997/wpcc.121.
Huzeyfe, Demirtas (no date) Epistemic Injustice – 1000-Word Philosophy: An Introductory Anthology. Available at: https://1000wordphilosophy.com/2020/07/21/epistemic-injustice/.
Dotson, K. (2014) ‘Conceptualizing Epistemic Oppression’, Social Epistemology: A Journal of Knowledge, Culture and Policy, 28(2), pp. 115–138. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/02691728.2013.782585.
Byerly, T.R. (2020) ‘How To Know Who’s Trustworthy’, Psyche [Preprint]. Available at: https://psyche.co/guides/how-to-spot-whos-trustworthy-and-whos-not-on-what-matters.
Teichman, M. and Dotson, K. (2017) ‘Kristie Dotson Discusses Epistemic Oppression’, Elucidations. Chicago, US: University of Chicago. Available at: https://lucian.uchicago.edu/blogs/elucidations/2017/01/14/episode-92-kristie-dotson-discusses-epistemic-oppression/.
Why Trust Science? (2019). Princeton University Press. Available at: https://www-jstor-org.uniessexlib.idm.oclc.org/stable/j.ctvfjczxx.
Carroll, S. (no date b) ‘Episode 32: Naomi Oreskes on Climate Change and the Distortion of Scientific Facts’. Available at: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2019/02/04/episode-33-naomi-oreskes-on-climate-change-and-the-distortion-of-scientific-facts/.
Romero, F. (2019) ‘Philosophy of science and the replicability crisis’, Philosophy Compass, 14(11). Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/phc3.12633.
Cartwright, N. and Hardie, J. (2012) Evidence-Based Policy. Oxford University Press. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199841608.001.0001.
Battaly, H. (2020) ‘Quitting, Procrastinating & Slacking Off’, in Vice Epistemology. London: Routledge. Available at: https://www-taylorfrancis-com.uniessexlib.idm.oclc.org/books/edit/10.4324/9781315146058/vice-epistemology-ian-james-kidd-quassim-cassam-heather-battaly.
Confucius and Muller, A.C. (1990) Analects of Confucius ??. Available at: http://www.acmuller.net/con-dao/analects.html.
Cassam, Q. (2019) ‘Stealthy Vices’, in Vices of the mind: from the intellectual to the political. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 144–166. Available at: https://academic.oup.com/book/10598/chapter/158572870.
Carroll, S. (no date a) ‘61 | Quassim Cassam on Intellectual Vices and What to Do About Them’. Available at: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2019/08/26/61-quassim-cassam-on-intellectual-vices-and-what-to-do-about-them/.
Plato and Grube, G.M.A. (2002b) Five dialogues. 2nd ed. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett. Available at: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=1350119&site=ehost-live.
Nagel, T. (1979) ‘What is it like to be a bat?’, in Mortal Questions. Canto. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, pp. 165–180. Available at: https://www-cambridge-org.uniessexlib.idm.oclc.org/core/books/mortal-questions/what-is-it-like-to-be-a-bat/E9B3A2BE0FC6D10D3CAA3E40F7D60521.
Arendt, H. (no date) ‘Thinking and Moral Considerations: A Lecture’, Social Research, 38(3), pp. 417–446. Available at: https://www-jstor-org.uniessexlib.idm.oclc.org/stable/40970069.
Locke, J., Spencer, M.G. and Locke, J. (2014) An essay concerning human understanding: with the second treatise of government. Ware: Wordsworth Editions. Available at: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=1437465.
Thompson, E. (1993) ‘The “I” of the Storm’, in The embodied mind: cognitive science and human experience. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, pp. 59–72. Available at: https://mitpress.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.7551/mitpress/9780262529365.001.0001/upso-9780262529365-chapter-004.
Evan Thompson (no date) Why I Am Not a Buddhist. Yale University Press, pp. 86–117. Available at: https://www-jstor-org.uniessexlib.idm.oclc.org/stable/j.ctvt1sgfz.
Alcoff, L. (2006) Visible identities: race, gender, and the self. New York: Oxford University Press. Available at: https://academic.oup.com/book/36020?login=true.
Gordon, L.R. (ed.) (1997) Existence in Black. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.
Hooks, B. (2014) ‘Homeplace: A Site of Resistance’, in Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics. 2nd edn. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, pp. 41–49. Available at: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315743110-11.
Kuperus, G. (2016) ‘Introduction’, in Ecopolitical Homelessness: Defining Place in an Unsettled World. 1st edn. Abingdon, UK: Earthscan, pp. 1–12. Available at: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315625676-1.

The above list is indicative of the essential reading for the course.
The library makes provision for all reading list items, with digital provision where possible, and these resources are shared between students.
Further reading can be obtained from this module's reading list.

Assessment items, weightings and deadlines

Coursework / exam	Description	Deadline	Coursework weighting
Coursework	Autumn Term Essay (1500 words)	16/12/2024	100%
Exam	Main exam: Remote, Open Book, 24hr during January
Exam	Reassessment Main exam: Remote, Open Book, 24hr during September (Reassessment Period)

Exam format definitions

Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary, for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.

Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.

Overall assessment

Coursework	Exam
50%	50%

Reassessment

Coursework	Exam
50%	50%

Module supervisor and teaching staff

Supervisor: Dr Matthew Burch, email: mburch@essex.ac.uk.

Teaching staff:

Contact details: PHAIS General Office - 6.130; pyugadmin@essex.ac.uk.

Availability

Available to incoming Essex Abroad / Exchange students: Yes

Available to Outside Option: Yes

Available to Audit: Yes

External examiner

Name: Dr Josiah Saunders

Institution: Durham University

Academic role: Associate Professor

Resources

Teaching materials: Available via Moodle

Lecture recording: Of 27 hours, 27 (100%) hours available to students:
0 hours not recorded due to service coverage or fault;
0 hours not recorded due to opt-out by lecturer(s), module, or event type.

Further information

Department website: Philosophical, Historical, and Interdisciplinary Studies (School of)

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Module Directory

PY109-4-AU-CO:Introduction to Epistemology