THE UNIVERSITY of EDINBURGH

DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2017/2018

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences : Philosophy

Undergraduate Course: Knowledge, Ignorance and Power (PHIL10160)

Course Outline
SchoolSchool of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences CollegeCollege of Humanities and Social Science
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) AvailabilityAvailable to all students
SCQF Credits20 ECTS Credits10
SummaryThis course will introduce and examine a range of topics at the intersection of epistemology and political/social/feminist philosophy, examining our actual epistemic practices in light of the relations of power and subordination that exist between differently placed groups in society, and looking at different proposals for how this should shape our theorizing about knowledge and ignorance.
Course description This course will introduce and examine a range of topics at the intersection of epistemology and political/social/feminist philosophy, examining our actual epistemic practices in light of the relations of power and subordination that exist between differently placed groups in society, and looking at different proposals for how this should shape our theorizing about knowledge and ignorance. Topics covered will include the opposition between standpoint theory and empiricism within feminist epistemology, the relevance of feminist and anti-racist philosophy to traditional epistemological debates (such as the analysis of knowledge or the truth conditions of knowledge ascriptions), alternative standards for assessing claims to knowledge (such as those offered by Collins's black feminist epistemology), different varieties of epistemic injustice (including but not limited to the two varieties discussed in influential work by Miranda Fricker: testimonial injustice and hermeneutical injustice), the epistemology of ignorance, and epistemic objectification.
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Students MUST have passed: Knowledge and Reality (PHIL08017) AND Mind, Matter and Language (PHIL08014)
Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Information for Visiting Students
Pre-requisitesVisiting students should have at least 3 Philosophy courses at grade B or above (or be predicted to obtain this). We will only consider University/College level courses.
High Demand Course? Yes
Course Delivery Information
Academic year 2017/18, Available to all students (SV1) Quota:  0
Course Start Semester 1
Timetable Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) Total Hours: 200 ( Lecture Hours 11, Seminar/Tutorial Hours 11, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 174 )
Assessment (Further Info) Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment) Midterm Essay: 40%
Final Essay: 60%
Feedback Formative Feedback Event: Midterm Essay of 1500 words, due in October.
No Exam Information
Academic year 2017/18, Part-year visiting students only (VV1) Quota:  0
Course Start Semester 1
Timetable Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) Total Hours: 200 ( Lecture Hours 11, Seminar/Tutorial Hours 11, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 174 )
Assessment (Further Info) Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment) Midterm Essay: 40%
Final Essay: 60%
Feedback Formative Feedback Event: Midterm Essay of 1500 words, due in October.
No Exam Information
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. Development of core skills in philosophy, including interpreting and critically engaging with philosophical texts, evaluating arguments and theories, and developing one's own ideas in response to the issues discussed.
  2. Knowledge of the principal theories within analytic feminist epistemology, and accounts of phenomena such as epistemic injustice and systematic ignorance
Reading List
Collins, Patricia Hill. 1991. ¿Learning From the Outsider Within, in Mary Margaret Fonow and Judith A. Cook (eds), Beyond Methodology: Feminist Scholarship As Lived Experience. Indiana.
Collins, Patricia Hill. 2000. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. Routledge.
Dotson, Kristie. 2011. ¿Tracking Epistemic Violence, Tracking Practices of Silencing¿, Hypatia 26: 236-57.
Dotson, Kristie. 2012. ¿A Cautionary Tale: On Limiting Epistemic Oppression¿, Frontiers 33: 24-47.
Fricker, Miranda. 2007. Epistemic Injustice: Power and the Ethics of Knowing. Oxford.
Harding, Sandra. 1986. The Science Question in Feminism. Open University.
Haslanger, Sally. ¿What Knowledge Is and What It Ought to Be¿, reprinted in Resisting Reality: Social Construction and Social Critique. Oxford.
Haslanger, Sally. ¿On Being Objective and Being Objectified¿, reprinted in Resisting Reality: Social Construction and Social Critique. Oxford.
Intemann, Kristen. 2010. ¿25 Years of Feminist Empiricism and Standpoint Theory: Where Are We Now?¿, Hypatia 25: 778-96.
Jagger, Alison. 1983. Feminist Politics and Human Nature. Harvester.
Jagger, Alison. 1989. ¿Love and Knowledge: Emotion in Feminist Epistemology¿, in A. Garry and M. Pearsall (eds), Women, Knowledge, and Reality: Explorations in Feminist Philosophy. Unwin Hyman.
Langton, Rae. ¿Feminism in Epistemology: Exclusion and Objectification¿, reprinted in Sexual Solipsism: Philosophical Essays on Pornography and Objectification. Oxford.
McKinnon, Rachel. Forthcoming. ¿Epistemic Injustice¿. Philosophy Compass.
Medina, Jose. 2013. The Epistemology of Resistance: Gender and Racial Oppression, Epistemic Injustice, and Resistant Imaginations. Oxford.
Mills, Charles. 1997. The Racial Contract. Cornell.
Mills, Charles. 2007. ¿White Ignorance¿, in Shannon Sullivan and Nancy Tuana (eds), Race and Epistemologies of Ignorance. SUNY.
Pohlhaus, Gaile. 2014. ¿Discerning the Primary Epistemic Harm in Cases of Testimonial Injustice¿, Social Epistemology: 99-114.
Potter, Elizabeth. 2006. Feminism and Philosophy of Science: An Introduction. Routledge.
Stanley, Jason. 2015. How Propaganda Works. Princeton.
Tanesini, Alessandra. 1999. An Introduction to Feminist Epistemologies. Blackwell.
Wylie, Alison. 2003. ¿Why Standpoint Matters¿, in Robert Figueroa and Sandra Harding (eds), Science and Other Cultures: Issues in Philosophies of Science and Technology. Routledge.
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills Not entered
KeywordsEpistemology,Knowledge,Ignorance,Feminism
Contacts
Course organiserDr Aidan Mcglynn
Tel: (0131 6)51 6333
Email: amcglynn@exseed.ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMiss Ann-Marie Cowe
Tel: (0131 6)50 3961
Email: Annmarie.Cowe@ed.ac.uk
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