Contemporary Epistemology and Philosophy of Science
F06
Klaus Ladstaetter
This course is divided into two sections. The first part is on contemporary epistemology. The aim of every theory of knowledge is to answer questions about the nature, the scope, and the limits of human knowledge. What is it to say that a person knows something? Wherein does the justification of a belief consist? The theories investigated offer founda- tionalist or coherentist, internalist or externalist approaches to these questions. Other topics will include theories of perception and of a prior knowledge.

The second part of the course is concerned with recent developments in the philosophy of science. We will focus on the structure and properties of scientific theories, on scientific explanation and prediction, verifiability, and confirmation. Course performance is evaluated by two substantial essays.