MA Seminar 1

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This MA seminar is devoted to development of epistemology in analytic tradition of XX and XXI century. Some contributions from outside of analytic school (phenomenological and hermeneutic analyses) will also be discussed. The notios of truth, rationality, justification, experience, belief, and knowledge will constitute the core of this seminar. The aim of this seminar is twofold. On the one hand we will be discussing the milestones of XX century theoretical philosophy. The scholarship here will be the same for all participants. On the other hand the seminar is to help the participants to pursue their individual MA projects whatever sub discipline they belong to. This part will be individual, although shared with the others in a form of presentations and essays.

The seminar aim is twofold. First: As knowledge and approaches of participants will be differentiated by their corresponding studying backgrounds it is crucial to form a common philosophical basis. It will be provided by focusing discussion on the milestones of XX century philosophy in both analytic and phenomenological/hermeneutic traditions. As milestones are seen the works which made that greatest impact on our contemporary understanding of following categories: truth, knowledge, meaning, language, belief, sense, understanding, explanation. These discussion will occupy about 3/4 of the seminar's time. The rest will be devoted to fostering individual projects.

The second aim is to give space for individual participants to share their idea concerning the MA projects with the rest of the group and with the instructor. It is to be accomplished by means of seminar presentations and individual tutorials.

I. Primary literature to be discussed on seminar sessions (to be broken down in two semesters)

Warm-up sessions: Selected discussions from: J. Burr, M. Goldinger (eds.) Philosophy and Contemporary Issues or entries in A. P. Martinich, D. Sosa (ends.) "A Companion to Analytic Philosophy"

Original texts by XX century philosophers

A) Analytic tradition

1. G. Frege, Function and Object

2. B. Russell, On denotation

3. P. Strawson, Individuals

4. L. Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-philosophicus

5. L. Wittgenstein, On Certainty

6. S. Kripke, Naming and Necessity

7. P. Grettier, Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?

8. W. V. O. Quine, Two Dogmas of Empiricism

9. P. A. Boghjossian, Analyticity Reconsidered

10. D. Davidson, Truth and Meaning

11. D. Davidson, Belief and the Basis of Meaning

12. J. Searle, Speech Acts

B) Phenomenological and hermeneutic tradition

1. E. Husserl, The Idea of Phenomenology

2. E. Husserl, Cartesian Meditation

3. A. Schutz, Multiple realities

4. M. Heidegger, What is Metaphysic

5. K. Jaspers, Philosophy

6. H. G. Gadamer, Truth and Method

7. P. Ricoeur, The Rule of Metaphor: Multi-disciplinary Studies of the Creation of Meaning in Language,

II. Auxiliary reading: Matthias Steup, John Turri and Ernest Sosa (eds.), "Contemporary Debates in Epistemology", E Sosa (ed.) "A Companion to Epistemology", A. P. Martinich, D. Sosa (eds.), A Companion to Analytic Philosophy; S. Guttenplan (ed.), "A Companion to the Philosophy of Mind"; J. Kim, E. Sosa (eds.), "A Companion to Metaphysics".

III. Individual readings related to individual MA projects

Knowledge: The students will be introduced into the works constituting the milestones of contemporary theoretical philosophy. They will know which philosophical problems are shred by analytic and non-analytic traditions - special emphasis will be on the problems of knowledge, truth, belief, rationality. Equally crucial will be the knowledge of subtle differences in approaches, especially the analytic versus hermeneutic ones as leading to radically different views.

Skills: Students will be practicing conceptual ad logical analysis of problems and theories. They shall acquire proficiency in self-critical use of analytic and hermeneutical vocabulary and concepts. They will learn how to discover and define unresolved problems.

Attitudes: The discipline in of carrying out research tasks, which requires long term focus on the assigned problem. Students will also learn to work the problems piece by piece and be always ready to present their results in clear presentations.

Requirements: (1) essays based on common or individual readings (the latter usually in connection with master projects) are due the end of each semester; (2) the MA work outline (synopsis) is due the end of the first semester; (3) the fragments of the MA work in progress must be presented on seminars systematically – it will not be allowed to present the whole work all at once without presenting and discussing its parts on seminars; (4) the whole Master thesis is required in April on the second year of the seminar in order to allow time for supervisors' criticism and corrections before the works are due to submission