Further Reading
Plato – The Meno – 80d – 85d – Meno’s dilemma and the slave boy example.
An excellent explanation and justification of the existence of innate knowledge.
Plato – The Republic – Covers, amongst other things, Plato’s account of the Forms and innate knowledge.
Descartes, Rene – Meditations – Covers, amongst other things, scepticism, innate ideas, innate knowledge, a priori knoweledge and offers wonderful illustrations for each (see for example the Cogito, the piece of wax (med. 2) and a priori arguments for the existence of God (med.s 3 & 5).
Descartes, Rene – Discourse on Method – a more detailed and penetrating, but challenging account of the above.
Locke, John – An essay Concerning Human Understanding – in particular book s 1&2 vol. 1. The empiricist ‘manifesto’. Provides the first, and arguably the definitive account of the tabula rasa approach to mind. See, in particular, book1.
Leibniz, Gottfried – New Essays on Human Understanding – Leibniz’ response to Locke. The ‘marble’ analogy can be located in the preface (52).
Leibniz, Gottfried – The Monadology – a challenging but accessible account of some of the logical principles/laws discussed in this chapter, including the law of identity, the identity of indiscernibles, the principle of sufficient reason and the law of non-contradiction.
Hume, David – An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding – a clear and accessible explanation of the empiricist method. Covers, amongst other things, the tabula rasa approach to ideas and knowledge and offers an excellent critique of the rationalist method.
Hume, David – A treatise on Human Nature – book three offers the first great attack on induction. Hume, the original author of the ‘problem of induction’ lays out a set of arguments to show why our belief in such a method is unwarranted.
Kant, Immanuel – Critique of Pure Reason –very challenging text that would be beyond the scope of an AS level student. For reference purposes, it is here that Kant lays out his account of the synthetic a priori and tries to provide a synthesis of both reason and experience.
Wittgenstein, Ludwig – The Philosophical Investigations – perhaps the greatest work of modern philosophy. It is here that Wittgenstein provides an account of how language functions. An exceptionally challenging book, but useful for an understanding of how language relates to the world. In book 2, Wittgenstein presents the famous ‘duck/rabbit’ example.
Wittgenstein, Ludwig – Blue Book - the ‘Tove’ example can be found in the introduction.
Wittgenstein – on certainty – An excellent account of some of the problems of ostension and the belief that ideas/concepts can be acquired from experience alone.
Chomsky, Naom – Language and problems of knoledge – Chomsky’s account of the innate (‘native’) status of grammar (language). A sophisticated defense of innate faculties.
Quine, W. V. O. – Word and Object – is where the ‘Gavagai’ example (in defense of linguistic relativity/relativity of conceptual schemes) can be located + the problem of the incommensurability/indeterminacy of translation between languages.
Quine – Two Dogmas of Empiricism – one of the most famous articles of the 20th Century. It is here that Quine presents his critique of the analytic/synthetic distinction.
Secondary Texts:
Hospers, John - An introduction to Philosophical Analysis – a wonderfully accessible introduction to most of the themes (and others) dealt with in this module.
Bennett, Jonathon – Locke, Berkeley, Hume: Central Themes – an excellent and accessible introduction to the key empiricist thinkers covered in this module.
Cottingham, John – The Rationalists (History of Western Philosophy Series) – an excellent and accessible introduction to the key rationalist thinkers covered in this module.
Greco, John & Sosa, Ernest – The Blackwell Guide to Epistemology – an excellent treatment of some of the wider themes in epistemology. Covers, in a fair amount of detail, all the key themes dealt with in this module.
Dancy, Jonathon & Sosa, Ernest – A Companion to Epistemology – an excellent and accessible reference book for both the issues treated in this module and epistemology in general.
Russell, Bertrand – The History of Western Philosophy – perhaps the greatest secondary text on philosophy ever written. The second half of Book 3, Part 1 deals with the majority of issues rasied in this module.
Web Links
www.epistemelinks.com - excellent links to trusted philosophical sites and a section on e-texts with links to hundreds of primary texts, some of which are no longer in print.
plato.stanford.edu – an excellent and reliable source of articles relating to all key themes and philosophers.
www.sparknotes.com - a relatively straightforward but reliable source of information which has sections on each of the key philosophers and themes covered in this module.
www.squashedphilosophers.com - a condensed but straightforward introduction to the majority of key thinkers in philosophy.
www.philosophyonline.co.uk - a site written and maintained by the philosopher Gareth Southwell. A helpful and well-written summary of some of the material covered on the A-Level Syllabus.
www.philosphynow.org - an excellent range of articles and discussion forums edited by Rick Lewis.
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