Date

Topic

 Reading Assignments Note: all readings will be available online or emailed to students. Links for online readings will be added to this schedule in the coming days)

Writing assignments due

Aug 24

Introductory Session

None

Aug 31

Sept. 7

Marilyn Frye, "To Be and Be Seen: The Politics of Reality"; (Requires setting up an account with the Internet Archive. Link goes to whole book; the chapter to read starts on page 152.)

Ian Hacking, "Making Up People"

Sept. 14

Response paper

Sept. 21

Decolonial feminist metaphysics

Maria Lugones, “Purity, Impurity, and Separation” (available online through our library, requires Star ID login)

Response paper

Sept. 28

1. “Being-In-the-World”, which is Chapter 3 of Heidegger, by David E. Cooper
2. “Sartre”, which is the second half of Chapter 9, of Philosophy and Philosophers, by John Shand (Just read the part about Sartre which starts on page 229.)
3. “Summary: Maurice Merleau-Ponty, ‘Eye and Mind” 1964” by Timothy Quigley  (With pictures!  And just a few pages of text.)
4. I’d also like you to start reading “Eye and Mind” itself and to get as far as you can into it.  Perhaps just a few pages will be enough to give you the flavor of Merleau-Ponty’s inimitable style.

Response paper;

Oct. 5

Sara Ahmed “A Phenomenology of Whiteness”

Want more? Ahmed's book Queer Phenomenology is available in its entirety through our library.

Response paper

Oct. 12

Response paper;

Oct. 19

First Position Paper due Monday Oct. 24 by 10 am

Oct. 26

Nov. 2

1. Selections from Epistemology: A Very Short Introduction by Jennifer Nagel: Please read:
Chapter 2 "Skepticism" and
Chapter 7 "Shifting Standards?" 

2. Selections from Problems of Knowledge by Michael Williams
Chapter  13 "Evidence and Entitlement"
Chapter 14 "Knowledge in Context"

Response paper;

Nov. 9

1. Rae Langton, “Feminism in Epistemology: Exclusion and objectification” 

2. Miranda Fricker: “Feminism in Epistemology: Pluralism Without Postmodernism” 

Response paper

Nov. 16

There is one thing I would like everyone to read:

“Postmodernism and Philosophy” by Stuart Sim. (Requires library login.) Chapter one of the Routledge Companion to Postmodernism

Then I would like you to pick (at least) one of the following

1. “Two Lectures” by Michel Foucault
2. “Truth and Power” by Michel Foucault
3. “Foucault’s Normative Epistemology” by Linda Alcoff

 Items 1 and 2 can be found here as Chapters 5 and 6 of Power/Knowledge

Item 3 is Chapter 9 of the book Companion to Foucault available through our library

Nov. 23

Ideology and epistemic injustice

1. First a brief ‘explainer’ that gives you the gist of Fricker’s idea of 'epistemic injustice': https://1000wordphilosophy.com/2020/07/21/epistemic-injustice/
   
   
2. Then, an essay by Charles Mills arguing that the somewhat discredited concept of ‘ideology’ is helpful in thinking about epistemic injustice. 
   “Ideology” by Charles Mills.  (Available at the link in the University library, but also sent by email as a pdf.)
   When you read this piece, remember Foucault’s hostility to the concept of ideology and his reasons for saying that it was no longer useful. Foucault’s thoughts can be found on page 118 of “Truth and Power” and the last page (p.133) of the same work.  Does Mills give us reasons to reject Foucault’s rejection of the concept?
   
   
3. “Decolonial praxis and epistemic injustice” by Andrea J. Pitts (Available at the link in the University library, but also sent by email as a pdf.)  If you can possibly find the time, please read this (mercifully short) piece.

Response paper; second paper instructions handed out

1. "White Ignorance" by Charles Mills;

2. "Knowing Disability Differently" by Shelley Tremain

Is the epistemology of ignorance itself a form of epistemic injustice?

2nd Position Paper due