Overview
First, be sure to read the excerpts (Intro and Ch 1) from Bishop and Trout’s book, which you’ll find in the epistemology section in Modules. You need to know the Aristotelian Principle! And you need to know the general ideas that ground and guide Bishop & Trout’s epistemological framework, which is Strategic Reliabilism. If you’re excited about epistemology, it looks like you can find a free download of the entire book here too: https://lit2talks.com/books-6110
Discussion Questions:
1)Bishop & Trout revolutionized epistemology by insisting on including the science/psychology of effective reasoning into a prescriptive model of good, reliable reasoning, especially when reasoning about significant matters, including ethics and medical diagnoses.
Here’s the question: Are science and analytic philosophy (where analytic philosophy includes logic, rationality, empirical evidence, and conceptual analysis to get clear on definitions for practical purposes), sufficient for knowing or understanding ourselves and the greater world – or are other ways of knowing or understanding also worthwhile and justifiable? Provide reasons for your answer and an example to help illustrate your point. Think about other possible ways to know.
2) Art as Epistemic Representation
I’d like to see examples of epistemology represented in Art. Find any kind of artwork – painting, collage, drawing, sculpture, or music – that represents some aspect of knowledge from a philosophical perspective – broadly understood – share a photo of it and explain the connection to epistemology or to philosophy in general. Be sure to include the title of the work and the artist. If you choose music, then please share the relevant lyrics too.
Here is my example:
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Geopolitcus Child, painted in 1943 by Salvador Dalí is one of my favorite paintings because of the social commentary concerning western culture bursting through and cracking the world, causing some devastation and uncertainty. There is a definite sense of knowing that is represented by the parent and child witnessing the changes from what seems to be “outside of the Cave,” given their distance and their awareness. They seem displaced, forced from their home, perhaps due to war or industrialization. Perspectives of knowing/understanding and/or inquiry include personal experiences of those witnesses, as well as history, morality (with conflicting moral frameworks), causal reasoning, sociology, social psychology, economics (follow the money and the upheavals), shifting ecological foundations, and changing geo-political organization.