Theories of Knowledge: How to Think about What You Know

Humans have been attempting to understand for thousands of years what knowledge truly is and how we aquire it, but the more we learn about the human body, our brains, and the world around us, the more challenging the quest becomes. The 21st century is a fast-paced world of technological change and expanding social networks, a world where information is plentiful and cheap, but where truth is in short supply. Delve into the exciting world of knowledge, belief, and truth in Theories of Knowledge: How to Think about What You Know. Taught by acclaimed Professor Joseph H. Shieber of Lafayette College, these 24 mind-bending lectures take you from ancient philosophers to contemporary neurobiologists, and from wide-ranging social networks to the deepest recesses of your own brain. Epistemology is as old as philosophy itself. Your survey takes you back to Plato, who defined knowledge in terms of “true belief”—a personal belief that corresponds with some external truth. You’ll see how this relationship between knowledge, belief, and the truth aligns with what 20th-century developmental psychologists have learned about children and the way we first begin to access information. These types of connections—between philosophical history and our world today, and between abstract theory and observed, real-world examples—make this course a rare treat, transforming how you think about yourself, the world around you, and the very nature of reality.

Reviews

Adrian van Eeden
I picked this course as I am keenly interested in psychology, education, and human behaviour. I was starting to feel I had reached some sort of saturation point at the armchair researcher level in a number of areas as many themes were starting to repeat themselves, but now I’ve found a new fascination, epistemology. The content is well written and narrated, although I found the very cleverly laid out cases and logic to be tough going for a lay person, but not so much that I honestly think I’ll give it another round just to see how far I can get my head around the methods used in presenting the concepts and debating them.

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