External World Skepticism

Catalog description

Preference to frosh. Most of us assume we live in a three-dimensional, physical world of people, tables, chairs, squirrels and electrons. Very few of us worry that we might be in the infamous Matrix. But how do we really know that the external world exists? The only evidence available to us seems to be our ever changing sensations. Do those sensations really give us reliable evidence for the existence of the external world? We'll look at Descartes' classic arguments but most of the class will be focused on contemporary philosophical discussions of the issue. A significant portion of the class will involve learning the modern tools of mathematical logic, probability theory, and Bayesianism. The class will begin with a short test to figure out how much of that material needs to be covered based on the knowledge-level of the participants.