Objectives and Readings for Part 7
Objectives for Part 7
In this module, we take up epistemology, the branch of philosophy
that investigates the nature, source, and limits of knowledge.
When you finish this module, you should be able to do all the following:
- Explain the difference between epistemological relativism and ethical relativism.
- Explain absolutism (aka essentialism) in metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics.
- Explain and critically analyze the arguments for ethical relativism.
- Explain the difference between dogmatic ("absolute") relativism and relative relativism,
and give examples of forms of relative relativism.
- Explain why one is not committed to absolute relativism if one rejects absolutism
(i.e., why relative relativism is the more plausible alternative to absolutism).
- Explain and critically analyze the arguments attempting to show
that scientific claims "underdetermined" by the evidence.
- Explain and critically analyze the correspondence theory of truth.
- Explain and critically analyze the pragmatic theory of truth.
Readings for Part 7