Midterm
Study Questions Your midterm exam will be in the usual room and the normal time.
The midterm itself will consist of an essay answer to one of the
questions below. The question will be selected at random and
announced on the day of the midterm; strategic studying is strongly
discouraged. Material from the questions that are not used will be
"recycled" and will likely show up, in one form or another, on your list
of final exam study questions (so studying for everything now
helps you to start getting ready for the final exam). (1) According to Alvin Goldman in his "Epistemic Folkways and
Scientific Epistemology," what are the goals of epistemology? What
does he think the branches are of scientific epistemology? What
are epistemic folkways? How does Goldman think they are related to
scientific epistemology? What is Goldman's hypothesis regarding
epistemic virtues and vices? How does he apply it to the Norman
case? Do you agree or disagree? Defend your position. (2) To what extent, if any, might some of the ideas of Quine and
Sellars contribute to naturalizing epistemology? Defend your
position. In the process, be sure to discuss Quine on the
analytic-synthetic distinction, and be sure to discuss Sellars on the
myth of the given, especially as applied to the corrigibility of our
conceptual framework. [There was a third question, but we couldn't get to the material before the midterm, so it has been deleted.] What is the point of these questions? By having the possible midterm questions in advance, you can take
your time, reflect, and prepare answers so that you have the opportunity
to go into the exam knowing what will be expected of you. The
questions themselves are designed to encourage you to synthesise or
integrate material presented over different lectures or different
readings. Some overlap is acceptable (and harmless since you will only
have to answer one of these questions). For example, in the answer
to the second question, if you mentioned that Paul Churchland was a
student of Sellars, and that he took the idea of our self-conception
being (in principle) corrigible further than Sellars by arguing that it
is actually false, that would be completely appropriate. If all
you did in answering the second question was to answer what I asked in
the third question – if you try to duck what I asked you to focus on –
then that type of answer to the second question would receive a failing
grade. If, at any time, you are wondering what sort of topics you should
or should not get into when answering one of the questions, ask the
instructor. He is happy to help out. In fact, if you have any
questions at all about the study questions, please ask the instructor.
That's kind of why he posted them so far in advance of the midterm (i.e.
to help you, and to help him to help you).
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