Coffee and Philosophy

Epistemology Bonus II: Connected To The Spec - Semantic Externalism

For the last episode of the first series of this podcast, I break down a response to scepticism not covered on the A Level specification: Semantic Externalism, the theory that the meaning of words is at least in part constituted by the connection between us language users and our environment - and explain how according to the semantic externalist, saying 'I am a brain in a vat' is self-refuting and therefore false. Funky examples include talk about ants drawing pictures of churchill in the sand, werewolves, jesus toast, cloud-gazing and hypothetical concussions.

Epistemology Bonus I: Beyond The A Level - An Introduction to Social Epistemology

In this episode, I'll be giving you an introduction to social epistemology, something not covered on the specification (though Zagzebski's virtue epistemology brushes quite closely with it) and making an argument for why it would be great to include on the A-Level spec- and why it might be a bad thing that it isn't already included. Assessed introduction to this podcast episode as written up for my assessment below!: 'This podcast episode aims to provide an introductory insightinto social epistemology for A Level philosophy students who either may be interested in what philosophy in higher education is like or generally enjoy the subject and want to explore concepts not present on the specification. Epistemology is one of the primary four areas of philosophy studied at A Level, but focuses entirely on classic epistemology, the closest reference to social epistemology being Linda Zagzebski’s virtue epistemology, used solely as a theory of knowledge rather than as a suggestion for combatting epistemic injustice. In creating this podcast, I set out to achieve two primary ends: firstly, to provide an insight into contemporary applications of epistemology in order to try and embrace the notion of the philosophy in life aspect of this assignment by applying the assignment to an existing personal project of significant importance to me: increasing interest and engagement with philosophy on a college level and encouraging more a level students to consider taking the subject into higher education. Secondly, to use the concepts being explained to demonstrate in practise the applications of philosophy by using social epistemology to make an argument exploring not only how social epistemology might be a positive addition to the a level philosophy scheme, but how the lack of diverse representation and discussion of social applications of philosophy in the a level specification at present may be an epistemic injustice in itself that the inclusion of a social epistemology module could mediate. My argument draws from several weeks of the course’s content, with a focus on giving a varied insight into social epistemology from explaining epistemic injustice and going into more detail by defining and giving examples of types of testimonial injustices and hermeneutical injustice, to introducing the concept of epistemic privilege through standpoint epistemology to make the argument for the benefits of better representation of marginalised voices in education. I drew from Miranda Fricker for several definitions surrounding epistemic injustices as well as insight into hermeneutical justice, which lead me to also refer to two separate pieces from Patricia Hill Collins in providing examples of epistemic injustices with reference to intersectionality and connecting the concept of the outsider within with that of epistemic privilege from a marginalised standpoint, both concepts fleshed out by Briana Toole’swriting; I referenced Kristie Dotson to explain testimonial injustices and also Rae Langton to outline illocutionary acts for the purpose of better explaining how epistemic injustices occur as a failure of a speech act due to the listener’s lack of understanding (because of some factor of the speaker’sidentity). A list of full references will be given at the end of the podcast when released after assessing for the sake of demonstrating accountable research to students and providing them with further reading into the subject.'

AQA A Level Epistemology Summary & Specification Review

In this episode I'll be summarising everything I've covered in the podcast so far in terms of the specification points A Level students need to know and the episodes in which you can find each little bullet point on the spec- one out of four sections of the course down! If you have the time, I would very much appreciate you dropping a comment on any particular content you've struggled with the most, any particular episode or section of an episode in this podcast that you found a bit unclear- or alternatively any episode/section that was particularly helpful or clear to you so I can reflect on how I've explained things and collect feedback for future reviews of past content I've covered. Also, if you have any specific questions content-wise feel free to drop them too, regardless of whether I've covered it or not- just because I've gone over all this once doesn't mean I'm not willing to re-explain and go into further detail on anything I've missed or not outlined as efficiently as I could have, especially given I have a lot more experience in philosophy now than I did when I began! You can comment directly on the spotify page or on individual episodes like this one, or feel free to send me an email at coffeenphilosophy@gmail.com if preferred. You can also DM the page on instagram (coffeenphilosophy), get in touch on threads (coffeenphilosophy) or on X (coffeenphilo) and Bluesky (coffeenphilo.bsky.social).

Epistemology 4: Empiricist responses to scepticism

In this episode I will be covering empiricist responses to scepticism including that of Bertrand Russell's realist 'best hypothesis' response, Berkeleys' idealist 'no world? no problem!' response, and the reliabilist approach to the problem of scepticism.

Epistemology 4: Descartes' Response to Scepticism

In this episode: A run-down of Descartes' response to the problem of scepticism, including an explanation of his wax analogy for the concept of physical objects, his argument for the possibility of physical objects and, inevitably, his argument for the existence of the external world. Also, some empirical crits as well as a bonus criticism from Amanda Bryant's paper 'Keep The Chickens Cooped: The Epistemic Inadequacy of Free Range Metaphysics'. Also also, the typical weird analogies- this time relating to iced lattes (I know, shocker, an actual reference to coffee for once), a horse with a thousand legs, and Santa Clause being honestly? A questionable idea overall.