This course is a special arrangement for the second semester of 2014-15. The College will not offer this course again in the future.
Structure: 1. Six 2-hour seminars
2. Six hours of tutorials
Please follow the following schedule since there will not be seminar or tutorial every week.
Schedule of seminars and tutorials (Please note that there will be no classes except on the following specified days)
Assessment: 60% continuous assessment (individual essay and group/individual presentation)
40% Exam
What you are expected
1. Read the materials in the course package before attending the seminar. In the seminar, we will discuss the issues involved. Do not expect the lecturer to do the talking alone.
2. Prepare for the presentation in the tutorials.
3. Be able to search for relevant materials to assist your own understanding of the topics.
4. Write systematically on the philosophical problems you have identified.
Course work requirement for Knowledge and Reality
(a) Group project (30%): Form a group of 2 to perform research on an assigned topic. Your research should culminate into a 20-30 minutes presentation in the last tutorial session.
(b) Individual essay (30%): each writes an argumentative essay between 1500 and 2000 words on EITHER one of the following:
(i) Is the study of metaphysics commensurate with that of science? You may illustrate your answer with a specific topic or question in science or philosophy that you are familiar with.
(ii) “Epistemology only deals with how and whether one knows. Hence, no one can benefit from it in terms of making oneself knowledgeable.” Discuss.
The deadline of the essay is the last day of the semester (30/4/2015). Your essay must be typewritten (12 Font, double-spaced) and follow any one of the standard formats such as MLA or Chicago. Plagiarism will be heavily penalized.
Topics for presentation
1. Research on G. W. Leibniz’s Principle of Sufficient Reason and then explain to the class how it bears on the question of “Why is there anything at all?”
2. Research on Idealism and explain to the class whether G. E. Moore’s common sense philosophy is an effective response to the idealists.
3. Research on the critical responses to Timothy Williamson’s Knowledge First approach and explain to the class whether these responses are successful.
4. Research on an interpretation on possible worlds that does not presuppose David Lewis’s modal realism and explain to the class how Lewis would have regarded it unsuccessful.
5. Research on the three different kinds of knowledge (knowledge de dicto, knowledge de re and knowledge de se) and explain to the class whether the skeptics ought to distinguish amongst them in arguing for their position.