INSTRUCTOR Professor Ted Poston |
OFFICE HOURS TBD |
CLASS MEETINGS T, R 3:30-4:45pm |
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Traditional epistemology assumes you either believe, disbelieve, or suspend judgment on a proposition. Knowledge, justification, and evidence are then framed in terms of the full beliefs. What are the conditions on belief that amount to knowledge? When is a belief that p justified? When does a person have adequate evidence to believe p? The Bayesian revolution in epistemology starts with the idea that you have degrees of belief in propositions, and that those degrees of belief are subject to rational constraints. For instance, if you are 80% confident that it will rain then you ought to be 20% confident that it will not rain. This course is an introduction to Bayesian epistemology. We will consider what degrees of beliefs are, how they relate to actions, what are rational constraints on degrees of belief, and why these constraints are rationally required. We will then apply the Bayesian framework to understand inductive reasoning, confirmation of hypotheses by evidence, and various puzzles and paradoxes.
COURSE PREREQUISITES
The course does not require knowledge of mathematics beyond basic linear algebra and introductory logic.
REQUIRED TEXTBOOK
Michael G. Titelbaum, Fundamentals of Bayesian Epistemology (Oxford University Press, forthcoming). |
OTHER RESOURCES
Course Homepage: http://tedposton.org/Courses/PHL492/index.html
ATTENDANCE / PARTICIPATION
(10% of final grade)
Attendance is required in this course. By not coming to class, students will be hurting their own final course grades in several ways. First, I will periodically take attendance to keep track of who is in class and actively, regularly participating. At the end of the course, I will give each student a percentage grade that will be worth 10% of his or her final course grade. Second, less directly, students who miss classes will thereby miss important course content; as a consequence, students who miss class will not do as well on tests, homework, or in class discussion.
QUIZZES
(20% of final grade)
I will give daily quizzes to test test your comprehension of the material. Occasionally, I will assign problems that students will complete and explain on the board in front of the entire class.
PAPERS
(I'll assign several short papers for you to explore a particular topic of interest.)
Final letter grades will follow a standard 10-point scale: 90-100 A, 80-89 B, 70-79 C, 60-69 D, 0-59 F. I will not be using a curve when calculating your grades.
MISSING AND LATE ASSIGNMENTS
In general, I do not allow students to make up missing quizzes. I also generally don't allow students to turn in late work. Some exceptions might be made in cases where students have a valid reason excusing them and evidence of that reason (e.g., sickness and a doctor’s note).
CELL PHONES, TABLETS, COMPUTERS, ETC.
Please turn off your electronic devices during class. This very much includes your cell phones! If you absolutely feel like you have to have your tablet or laptop with you to take notes during class, please talk to me outside of class to argue your case.
Statement on Academic Misconduct
Students are expected to be familiar with and adhere to the official Code of Academic Conduct provided in the Online Catalog.
Statement On Disability Accommodations
Contact the Office of Disability Services (ODS) as detailed in the Online Catalog.