Scope
What criteria can we use to distinguish between knowledge, belief and opinion?
• How do we distinguish claims that are contestable from claims that are not? • Are there situations where “knowing how” is more important than “knowing that”?
• Why should we care about acquiring knowledge?
• Why are the criteria for what counts as knowledge not obvious? • Can other people know us better than we know ourselves?
• How do our interactions with the material world shape our knowledge?
Perspectives
• What shapes my perspective as a knower?
• How much of our knowledge depends on our interactions with other knowers? • Is the truth what the majority of people accept?
• How do empathy and imagination help us to understand other perspectives? • Presented with the belief system of a community of knowers, how can we decide what we personally believe?
• Are there types of knowledge that are specifically linked to particular communities of knowers?
• How can we know that current knowledge is an improvement on past knowledge?
Methods and Tools
How do we acquire knowledge?
• What constitutes a “good reason” for us to accept a claim?
• Are intuition, evidence, reasoning, consensus and authority all equally convincing methods of justification?
• Does knowledge always require some kind of rational basis? • How do our expectations and assumptions have an impact on how we perceive things?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of requiring that all knowledge is verified by a group?
Ethics
Are there responsibilities that necessarily come with knowing something or knowing how to do something?
• As knowers, do we have a moral duty to examine our own assumptions and biases?
• Under what circumstances, if any, do we have a moral duty to share what we know?
• In what ways do ethical judgments differ from other kinds of judgments? • Is there knowledge that a person or society has a responsibility to acquire or not to acquire?
• If moral claims conflict, does it follow that all views are equally acceptable? • What personal traits (such as taking seriously the knowledge of others) do we need in order to be ethical knowers?