This seminar is based on guided reading and discussion of primary philosophical texts and focuses on epistemology, that is, the theory of knowledge. The main goal of the course is to help students understand the most important problems related to knowledge, belief, and truth. The central topics include the difference between belief and knowledge, the role of truth, and the question of how our beliefs can be justified.
Poslední úprava: Horáčková Karolína, Bc. (02.02.2026)
This seminar is based on guided reading and discussion of primary philosophical texts and focuses on epistemology, that is, the theory of knowledge. The main goal of the course is to help students understand the most important problems related to knowledge, belief, and truth. The central topics include the difference between belief and knowledge, the role of truth, and the question of how our beliefs can be justified.
Poslední úprava: Horáčková Karolína, Bc. (02.02.2026)
Podmínky zakončení předmětu -
active presence on seminars (three absences will be tolerated)
an essay (6-8 standard pages [1800 letters including spaces per page])
PLEASE NOTE that the use of AI is allowed during seminars but prohibited during writing the final essay.
Poslední úprava: Horáčková Karolína, Bc. (02.02.2026)
active presence on seminars (three absences will be tolerated)
an essay (6-8 standard pages [1800 letters including spaces per page])
PLEASE NOTE that the use of AI is allowed during seminars but prohibited during writing the final essay.
Poslední úprava: Horáčková Karolína, Bc. (02.02.2026)
Sylabus -
First, we will explain what epistemology is and how it relates to other areas of philosophy, especially metaphysics and ontology. We will then introduce two main traditions of early modern philosophy: rationalism and empiricism, represented by René Descartes and David Hume.
The first part of the course will focus on Descartes and his rationalist approach to knowledge. Through close reading of selected parts of Meditations on First Philosophy, students will discuss methodological doubt, the cogito argument, the idea of clear and distinct knowledge, and the role of God in grounding certainty. The second part of the course will focus on Hume’s empiricism and his critique of rationalism. Reading mainly from An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, students will study Hume’s theory of impressions and ideas, his views on causality, the problem of induction, and his analysis of belief and habit. Special attention will be paid to Hume’s conclusions about metaphysics, personal identity, and the limits of human reason.
Throughout the course, Descartes’ and Hume’s views will be regularly compared in order to show the key differences between rationalism and empiricism. The main contrasts will include reason versus experience, certainty versus probability, and strong foundations of knowledge versus skepticism.
General topics:
What is epistemology?
The distinction of epistemology, ontology and metaphysics. Main topics of epistemology: truth, belief, justification. Rationalism:
René Descartes.
Meditations: doubt, cogito ergo sum, clear and distinct knowledge, the role of God.
Empiricism:
David Hume. Human Understanding: impressions vs. ideas, causality, induction, beleif and habit, Hume’s conception of God. Rationalism vs. Empiricism.
Main differences of two schools:
foundationalism vs. skepticism (and/or fallibilism), the role of reason in justification, the a priori and a posteriori arguments, discussions about objectivity and subjectivity.
Mandatory reading:
Descartes, René. Meditations on First Philosophy. Translated by Michael Moriarty, Oxford University Press, 2008.
Hume, David. An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2006.
Poslední úprava: Horáčková Karolína, Bc. (02.02.2026)
First, we will explain what epistemology is and how it relates to other areas of philosophy, especially metaphysics and ontology. We will then introduce two main traditions of early modern philosophy: rationalism and empiricism, represented by René Descartes and David Hume.
The first part of the course will focus on Descartes and his rationalist approach to knowledge. Through close reading of selected parts of Meditations on First Philosophy, students will discuss methodological doubt, the cogito argument, the idea of clear and distinct knowledge, and the role of God in grounding certainty. The second part of the course will focus on Hume’s empiricism and his critique of rationalism. Reading mainly from An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, students will study Hume’s theory of impressions and ideas, his views on causality, the problem of induction, and his analysis of belief and habit. Special attention will be paid to Hume’s conclusions about metaphysics, personal identity, and the limits of human reason.
Throughout the course, Descartes’ and Hume’s views will be regularly compared in order to show the key differences between rationalism and empiricism. The main contrasts will include reason versus experience, certainty versus probability, and strong foundations of knowledge versus skepticism.
General topics:
What is epistemology?
The distinction of epistemology, ontology and metaphysics. Main topics of epistemology: truth, belief, justification. Rationalism:
René Descartes.
Meditations: doubt, cogito ergo sum, clear and distinct knowledge, the role of God.
Empiricism:
David Hume. Human Understanding: impressions vs. ideas, causality, induction, beleif and habit, Hume’s conception of God. Rationalism vs. Empiricism.
Main differences of two schools:
foundationalism vs. skepticism (and/or fallibilism), the role of reason in justification, the a priori and a posteriori arguments, discussions about objectivity and subjectivity.
Mandatory reading:
Descartes, René. Meditations on First Philosophy. Translated by Michael Moriarty, Oxford University Press, 2008.
Hume, David. An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2006.
Poslední úprava: Horáčková Karolína, Bc. (02.02.2026)
