Teaching Theory of Knowledge

Miscellaneous Ideas

Recitals - I require that all students meet with me for a "Recital" early in the term. This requirement insures that students have a solid grounding in the central problems early in the course, and the individual contact allows me to make specific suggestions tailored to the individual's needs, problems, and concerns. Here are the instructions that appear on a typical syllabus: "Be able to state the entire argument of the Meditation I, and to recite it informally to me, without relying on the text or notes. Set up a meeting date and time by the date shown on the syllabus." (WEM)

Thought questions - In addition to taking a midterm examination and a final examination, each student works on one or two "thought questions" (examples listed below) which are presented orally in class and discussed. The questions are controversial; the student is graded on the case s/he makes for his/her view, not on the view s/he takes. Examples:

Is there anything so certain that no reasonable person could doubt it?

Can we know what another is thinking?

What reasons have we for believing that there are physical objects?

Is knowledge of the past possible? (CB)

Dialogues - Many philosophy instructors teach their classes by using vigorous, structured discussions, where a thesis is presented, a counter-example generated, and then the thesis is revised to deal with the counter-example. Using a dialogue format for exam questions encourages students to engage in that same vigorous process in their essays. The following are some sample dialogue questions:

1. Write an imaginary dialogue between Descartes and a "hybrid" character, Ausmates (pronounced Aus-ma-TEEZ), who is familiar with everything said by Austin, Bouwsma, and Socrates in our assigned reading. The dialogue takes place as Descartes and Ausmates are walking along the river from IUSB to Farmers' Market.
   1. (counts one-quarter) In the first part of the dialogue, have the two speakers work together to answer the question:

      Suppose that one person knows that S, whereas another person believes that S but does not know that S, even though the proposition "S" is true. In what way or ways does the second person differ from the first? (Be sure that your answer holds true no matter what the proposition "S" is).

   2. (counts three-quarters) The remainder of your dialogue should deal with the following:
      1. While they are walking, Descartes and Ausmates meet an extraterrestrial being. He speaks and understands English. He is sometimes taken in by perceptual illusions. He is like human beings in other ways as well, except that he neither sleeps nor dreams. He does not have the words 'dream' and 'dreaming' as part of his vocabulary. Descartes and Ausmates explain the use of these words to the extraterrestrial. Have them do this in your dialogue.
      2. Have Descartes present the strongest case possible for answering 'yes' to the following question:

         Does the human phenomenon of dreaming provide some reason for doubting the truth of the proposition, "There are trees on the bank of the river"?

         Have Ausmates question and criticize Descartes from the standpoint of a philosopher who takes the "indirect approach" to combating skepticism. Let your own position be made clear by how the dialogue goes.

      3. Are dreams illusions? (to answer this, you will have to do some things to clarify the concept of an illusion).

      In writing this 3-5 page paper, you should show that you have understood the class presentations and the assigned readings, and that you have done some thinking of your own about the issues in question. Try to put things in your own words. You may use a limited amount of material quoted directly from the book -- no more than one-quarter of the paper -- but every passage copied out of the book (or another source) must be enclosed in quotation marks followed by a page reference in parentheses. (AN)

2. It is late and you are trudging home from the Library, having spent hours studying epistemology. Suddenly you see a crowd of people surrounding two rather oddly dressed men who are engaged in a very strenuous dispute. Because you are curious, you join the crowd and discover, much to your surprise, that the disputants are none other than Rene Descartes and Francis Bacon.

   As you join the group, you hear Bacon say, "There was but one course left . . . to try the whole thing anew upon a better plan, and to commence a total reconstruction of sciences, arts, and all human knowledge, raised upon the proper foundations." At this point, Descartes interrupts. Describing his own intellectual work, he says, ". . . I was convinced of the necessity of undertaking once in my life to rid myself of all the opinions I had adopted, and of commencing anew the work of building from the foundation, if I desired to establish a firm and abiding superstructure of the sciences."

   During the course of the afternoon, they discuss a whole range of topics, most notably the following: the nature of those foundations, methods for arriving at them, the reliability of the senses, sources of error, and the nature of human knowledge. After the "battle" is over, you congratulate yourself on your luck, because it just so happens you have a take-home test in your theory of knowledge class which requires you to write a description and an analysis of such a conversation. Do so. (MAC)