Skepticism
Course Description
The universe is exceedingly complex and learning about it requires great cleverness and effort. Through reasoning, we humans can arrive at impressive and deep knowledge of our universe. But reason can also lead us into paradox and skeptical puzzles. We will look at a variety of skeptical arguments—Cartesian, Humean, Pyrrhonian, among others—and consider what sorts of challenges they raise for our use of reasoning to learn about our world.
Meet the Instructor: Krista Lawlor
"When I was an undergraduate at a small state school (UNH), I liked mathematics, and I also studied a bit of philosophy on the side. I never thought about teaching as a career, until a friend of mine decided to head off to graduate school in English. Her example gave me the idea to explore a subject I really had enjoyed most of all—philosophy. One thing led to another, and I got my PhD in philosophy (from another, much larger, state school: University of Michigan). Stanford hired me, and I’ve been very happily teaching and exploring ever since."
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