Course Overview

Rethink everything you know about the world as you delve into the fascinating field of epistemology.

Understanding Knowledge

Humans have been attempting to understand what knowledge truly is and how we acquire it for thousands of years. In today’s fast-paced world, where information is abundant but truth is scarce, this quest becomes increasingly challenging.

Taught by acclaimed Professor Joseph H. Shieber, these 24 mind-bending lectures take you from ancient philosophers to contemporary neurobiologists, exploring the connection between knowledge, belief, and truth.

Course Lectures

• Philosophy and Transformative Experiences – 29 min

2. Knowledge, Truth, and Belief – 28 min

3. Foundationalism: Descartes’s Evil Demon – 28 min

• The Coherence Theory of Knowledge – 31 min

5. Externalist Theories of Knowledge – 29 min

6. Problems with Self-Knowledge – 29 min

• Does Sense Perception Support Knowledge? – 30 min

8. Perception: Foundationalism and Externalism – 28 min

• The Importance of Memory for Knowledge – 28 min

10. Confabulations and False Memories – 28 min

11. The Extended Mind – 28 min

12. Do We Have Innate Knowledge? – 29 min

13. How Deduction Contributes to Knowledge – 29 min

14. Hume’s Attack on Induction – 28 min

• The Raven Paradox and New Riddle of Induction – 28 min

16. Know-How versus Propositional Knowledge – 30 min

• Knowledge Derived from Testimony – 28 min

• Social Psychology and Source Monitoring – 29 min

19. Testimony through Social Networks – 28 min

• The Reliability of Scientific Testimony – 29 min

21. Testimony in the Media – 28 min

22. Pragmatic and Moral Encroachment – 27 min

• Radical Skepticism: The Brain in a Vat – 28 min

• The Future of Epistemology – 37 min