Philosophy 4

We will begin this introductory course in epistemology with the question of whether we really know what we ordinarily think we know, and the worrisome view that we really do not: skepticism. We will focus in this regard on the following questions. The skeptic seems to demand from us some kind of explanation of how we know the things we think we know. What kind of demand is this and how does the skeptic raise it? Is it a reasonable demand – must we meet it? And even if we don’t need to, how does one say what is so compelling about such a demand? We may also touch on further, but related questions about the relation between belief, truth, and justification, and about how we ought to go about believing things.