MEET YOUR INSTRUCTOR

Dr. Ahmed Abdel Meguid
Department of Religion, Syracuse University

COURSE OVERVIEW

Epistemology is essentially a theory and it fundamentally deals with:

1. What is true knowledge? (Concerns identity of knowledge);
2. What can we know? (Concerns various forms of knowledge and what qualifies to be described as true knowledge);
3. How can we attain true knowledge? (Sources of knowledge).

Dr. Ahmed Abdel Meguid clearly explains the Agrippan Trilemma, explaining the justification of knowledge and true beliefs when considering Foundationalism vs. Coherentism.

This course will also go over the agreement on two main sources of knowledge:

1. Reason –  intellection.
2. Sensation – intuition “sense data”.

Finally, the course focuses on how imagination is regarded as a source of construction of knowledge. Imagination can be tricky as it can be considered as having a subordinate role in helping relate to senses. However, one of the greatest achievements ever was the mind’s ability to expand the role of the imagination. Many took imagination as an epistemic source, others took it as an approximation of reason, and some others have given it an important role in synthesizing ideas and constructing our knowledge of the physical reality around us – famously credited to Immanuel Kant.