As in previous years, the course will be based on a new book currently being completed by Ernest Sosa, titled Dawning Light: Epistemology and Domains of Trust (title and abstract below). He will select three sessions from the manuscript, along with his Colloquium talk scheduled for Wednesday, June 11.
The seminar (and the Colloquium) will engage with selected chapters from this work in progress.
A central theme of the manuscript is the notion of default assumptions. We will explore their constitutive role in shaping various domains such as athletic competition, legal procedures (e.g. rules of admissible evidence), religious faith, and close personal relationships. The focus will be on their epistemic function within what Sosa terms “domains of trust.”
These default assumptions raise two kinds of philosophical interest:
(a) They help define and sustain such domains of trust.
(b) They serve as a basis for a novel response to philosophical skepticism.
A second major theme of the seminar will be the development of an alternative philosophical methodology, distinct from both standard naturalist and experimental philosophy approaches. Sosa introduces what he calls “dawning light epistemology”, which aims to conceptually engineer a setting that supports realist armchair intuitions.
Finally, if time allows, the seminar will also address contrasts with knowledge-first epistemology.
The manuscript builds upon the telic virtue epistemology developed in Judgment and Agency (OUP, 2015) and Epistemic Explanations (OUP, 2021), but it goes significantly beyond both. No prior familiarity with Sosa’s earlier work is assumed.
