Descartes and scepticism about the external world

This first session starts by outlining the kind of issues examined in epistemology. On the one hand, the analysis of knowledge and its relation to other concepts such as justification, reliability, truth and luck. But on the other, it also addresses a concern that knowledge may not be possible after all. That is the challenge of answering sceptical arguments: arguments which seem to start from innocent premises about knowledge to its impossibility. The main business of the session, however, is a reading of Descartes first meditation.

• • Descartes, R. ([1641]1996) Meditations on First Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Meditation 1 available here

Further reading:

• • Stroud, B. (2010) 'The problem of the external world' in Sosa et al (eds) Epistemology: an anthology, Oxford Blackwell

The lecture slides are here.

Reflections on this session.

Next session.