We'll be discussing various foundational issues in epistemology, focusing on belief. Questions we'll cover include: when are beliefs justified, and when can this justification be defeated by new information? What's the relationship between belief and credence? How does what I'm justified in believing relate to which actions are rational to take, what we can felicitously assert, and how we ought to inquire? What are credences, and how does my evidence determine what my credences should be at a time, and across time on learning new information? Can groups have beliefs/credences, and if so, how are they like or unlike individual beliefs/credences? 

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I like there to be a lot of discussion in these classes, and I'll often give you tasks to complete in small groups. Each week will have an assigned reading. While you don't *have to* do these readings, you ought to---that way you'll get the most out of this class. 

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Here, I'll post readings for each weeks and attach the handouts for each session. 

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Remember that I am happy to chat beyond class time --- either send me an email or drop by my office (6.31)!

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Week 1 (30/9) --- The Dogmatism Puzzle​​

• Reading: Salow, Fallibility and Dogmatism.

• Handout.

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Week 2 (7/10) --- Believing, thinking, being sure

• Reading: Goodman and Holguín, Thinking and Being Sure.

• Handout.

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NOTE: I am away 14/10; no class. 

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Week 3 (21/10) --- Introduction to Credences

• If you are new to credences/probability, read chapters 1 and 2 of Titelbaum's Fundamentals of Bayesian Epistemology

• If you are NOT new to credences, read White's Evidential Symmetry and Mushy Credences

• Handout.

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Week 4 (28/10) --- Credences and Defeat

• If you are new to credences, read chapters 3 and 4 of Titelbaum's Fundamentals of Bayesian Epistemology

• If you are NOT new to credences, read Schoenfield's Instrumentalism and Higher Order Defeat.

• *Three* handouts!:

  • Cheat sheet about conditional credences and conditionalization​

  • The group task I set for the class

  • *Not* the solutions to the task---just how I personally approached them.

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Week 5 --- Group (full) Belief

• Read Lackey's "What is Group Justified Belief?"

• Handout.

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Week 6 --- Group Credences

• Reading Russell, Hawthorne and Buchak "Groupthink"

• Handout.