Possible paper topics

Principles of Inquiry: Ways of Knowing

Summer, 2001

The general requirement is that your topic should fall within the scope of this course, i.e., it should address some philosophical question about knowledge or inquiry.

Some suggestions:

1. Criticize or defend some version of foundationalism or coherentism.
2. Criticize or defend some version of pragmatism.
3. Criticize or defend some version of relativism.
4. Criticize or defend some version of ‘naturalized epistemology’.
5. Critically evaluate one of the essays we read (or one important claim or argument from one of the essays). (“Essay” could mean a chapter from Haack or from the Alcoff anthology or from one of the handouts.)
6. Explain and assess Haack’s ‘crossword puzzle model’ of inquiry.
7. Explain and assess the claim that ‘Western rationality’ is male.
8. Explain and assess the claim that there are ‘women’s ways of knowing’.
9. Explain and assess some version of the claim that science is social.
10. Explain and assess some reason (or reasons) for thinking that modern Western epistemology is bankrupt.
11. Try to provide a successful analysis of “S knows that P” or of “S is justified in believing that P.”
12. Explain and assess some reason for thinking that it is pointless or futile to do what #11 above suggests.
13. Explain and assess some version of the claim that epistemology is political or that it must take into account the politics of knowledge.