PHIL 044. Comparative Theories of Knowledge

What can we know? What should we believe? Are there good responses to skeptical arguments challenging our claims to knowledge and justified belief? Under what conditions can we acquire knowledge from what others tell us? Can there be reasonable disagreements among epistemic peers? This course looks at some of the major questions in both contemporary epistemology and classical Indian epistemology on the nature of knowledge and justified belief, skepticism, and topics in social epistemology. Students will be encouraged to think creatively about their own answers to these questions, while appreciating the influential answers coming from a diversity of voices and perspectives in the history of philosophy.
This course was previously called ‘Epistemology without Borders’. If you have already taken that course, you cannot take this course, it is the same content, with a new name.
PHIL distribution - H, L
Prerequisite: First- and second-year students must complete one introductory level PHIL course, before enrolling in this course.
Humanities.
1 credit.
Fall 2026. Picascia.
Catalog chapter: Philosophy
Department website: http://www.swarthmore.edu/philosophy

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