Truth and Belief - ARTS2360
Faculty: Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
School: School of Humanities
Course Outline: School of Humanities Course Outlines
Campus: Kensington Campus
Career: Undergraduate
Units of Credit: 6
EFTSL: 0.12500 (more info)
Indicative Contact Hours per Week: 3
Enrolment Requirements:
Prerequisite: 30 units of credit at Level 1; Excluded: ARTS2369
Equivalent: PHIL2004
CSS Contribution Charge: 1 (more info)
Tuition Fee: See Tuition Fee Schedule
Further Information: See Class Timetable
Available for General Education: Yes (more info)
View course information for previous years.
Description
Subject Area: Philosophy
This course is an introduction to philosophical puzzles concerning the nature of belief, knowledge and the mind. We begin by considering the nature of belief, and specifically its connection to truth. It is a truism that beliefs are correct if and only if they are true. But what does this tell us about the nature of belief, or about the ways in which we form and abandon beliefs? From the topic of belief we move onto the nature of knowledge. Traditionally, knowledge has been taken to require something over and above merely true belief: a lucky guess, for example, does not count as knowledge. But what is this extra element, that distinguishes a lucky guess from knowledge? General metaphysical questions concerning the nature of the mind will also be discussed.