This was a super fascinating class! Epistemology is the study of knowledge and how we know things. This was the only honours class I did in first semester, so it was kind of jumping into the deep end for me as someone without a thorough background in philosophy. This subject was a deep dive into whether we have a priori knowledge. A priori knowledge is knowledge known independent of experience. So, for example, something like 2 + 2 = 4. I thought the course was very well structured and lots of themes throughout the readings came up multiple times throughout the course and were developed on. I picked up a lot of familiarity with the discipline through this subject, and the people who contributed in the tutes always had super interesting and considered points/objections/other things to say about the readings. I do think it’s assumed (though it’s not officially) that you’ve done some epistemology before (e.g. the undergrad course), cause a lot definitions that came up about some of the technical terms weren’t really explained (things like analyticity, naturalism, reliablism etc. kind of went over my head even when I googled them), so it might be nice to include brief touch ups on basic concepts when they come up. Overall I ended up believing that a priori doesn’t exist, but I’m not super sure of it cause it’s not my area of expertise.

Anonymous, Semester 1, 2025