Metaphysics and Epistemology (AP9223C)

Content

This unit examines excerpts from major philosophical texts in order to discuss significant issues in metaphysics and epistemology. It engages with philosophical questions such as: What is existence? What is real and what is appearance? How do being and becoming relate to one another? What is change? What is knowledge? Does knowledge come from the senses or from reason? What is the status of scientific and historical knowledge? What is the relationship of thought, language, and reality?

Learning outcomes

Unit sequence

Prerequisites: One unit of philosophy at postgraduate level or four units of philosophy at undergraduate level.

Pedagogy

Lectures, seminars, and guided discussion of readings, e.g. via worksheets.

Indicative Bibliography

• Abraham, William J., and Frederick D. Aquino, eds. The Oxford Handbook of the Epistemology of Theology. 1st ed. Oxford Handbooks in Religion and Theology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017.
• Blackson, Thomas A. Ancient Greek Philosophy: From the Pre-Socratics to the Hellenistic Philosophers. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011.
  
• Desmond, William. The Voiding of Being : The Doing and Undoing of Metaphysics in Modernity. Studies in Philosophy and the History of Philosophy, vol. 61. Washington: Catholic University of America Press, 2020.
• Fine, Gail, ed. The Oxford Handbook of Plato. 2nd ed. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2019.
• Grondin, Jean. Introduction to Metaphysics: From Parmenides to Levinas. Translated by Lukas Soderstrom. New York: Columbia University Press, 2012.
  
• Heidegger, Martin. Being and Time: A Translation of Sein und Zeit. Translated by Joan Stambaugh. New York: State University of New York Press, 2010.
• Kant, Immanuel, and Allen W. Wood. Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals: With an Updated Translation, Introduction, and Notes. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2018.
• Kerr, Gaven. Aquinas and the Metaphysics of Creation. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2019.
• Sosa, Ernest. Epistemology. Princeton Foundations of Contemporary Philosophy. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2017.
• Wippel, John F. The Metaphysical Thought of Thomas Aquinas: From Finite Being to Uncreated Being. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2000.

Assessment