Course Description: Epistemology is the philosophical study of knowledge, belief, justification, evidence, truth, certainty, and rational inquiry. This course introduces students to both classical and contemporary questions about how human beings know what they claim to know.
Students will examine questions such as:
- What is knowledge?
- What distinguishes knowledge from belief?
- Can we actually know anything with certainty?
- How should we respond to skepticism?
- What makes a belief justified?
- Can perception, memory, reason, testimony, and experience produce knowledge?
- Should we trust other people as sources of knowledge?
- What happens when equally informed people disagree?
- Can social structures determine whose knowledge is believed?
- What makes someone a good knower?
The course concludes by treating epistemology as a practical skill essential to education, science, journalism, counseling, religion, politics, relationships, and everyday decision-making.
Course Learning Outcomes : By the end of the five lessons, students should be able to:
- Define epistemology and explain its major philosophical questions.
- Distinguish knowledge, belief, truth, justification, and certainty.
- Explain the traditional justified-true-belief model of knowledge.
- Explain the Gettier problem.
- Analyze skeptical arguments concerning human knowledge.
- Compare rationalist and empiricist approaches to knowledge.
- Evaluate perception, memory, reason, and testimony as sources of knowledge.
- Explain epistemic disagreement and epistemic injustice.
- Identify epistemic virtues and intellectual vices.
- Construct a defensible personal philosophy of knowing.
Assessment Structure
| Component | Weight |
| Participation & Discussion | 20% |
| Five Journal Reflections | 20% |
| Creative Arts Responses | 20% |
| Epistemological Analysis | 15% |
| Final Philosophy of Knowing Project* | 25% |
| Total | 100% |
Final Epistemological Analysis: Students select a controversial knowledge claim and analyze it philosophically.
Possible topics:
- Can artificial intelligence possess knowledge?
- Can religious experience constitute knowledge?
- Can science provide certainty?
- Can personal experience be trusted?
- Should we trust social media information?
- Can conspiracy theories ever constitute knowledge?
- Can cultural traditions produce legitimate knowledge?
- Can someone know something without knowing how they know it?
- Should experts be trusted?
- Can intuition constitute knowledge?
Students must:
- Define the knowledge claim.
- Identify what is being claimed as knowledge.
- Identify the evidence supporting it.
- Evaluate the reliability of the evidence.
- Apply at least three epistemological theories or concepts.
- Address at least one skeptical objection.
- Consider social or cultural dimensions of the knowledge claim.
- Defend their own conclusion.
*Optional Final Creative Project: Students may substitute a creative philosophical project for the traditional final paper.
Philosophical Dialogue : Write a conversation among:
Plato → Descartes → Hume → Gettier → Fricker → Contemporary Student (yourself)
The characters debate whether human beings can genuinely know anything.
Epistemology Exhibition : Create six works representing:
Belief → Truth → Justification → Doubt → Social Knowledge → Wisdom
Short Film : Create a 5–10 minute film (script) in which the protagonist discovers that something they believed to be true is actually false. The film must demonstrate at least three epistemological concepts. You do not have to film this, however if you do, upload it to clapper and tag your mentor.
Epistemology Song Cycle : Create five songs OR identify representing:
- The Desire to Know
- Doubt
- Evidence
- Disagreement
- Wisdom
Discuss your rationale for each song choice.
Personal Epistemological Manifesto : Write a personal philosophy of knowing consisting of 10 principles.
For example:
“I will distinguish confidence from certainty.”
“I will seek evidence that could prove me wrong.”
“I will recognize that other people may possess knowledge I do not.”
Then provide a philosophical defense of each principle.