This version of the course guide is provisional until the period for editing the new course guides ends.

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World Epistemologies

Code: 107229 ECTS Credits: 6
2025/2026
Degree Type Year
Social and Cultural Anthropology FB 1

Contact

Name:
Andreu Ballus Santacana
Email:
andreu.ballus@uab.cat

Teachers

Andreu Ballus Santacana

Teaching groups languages

You can view this information at the end of this document.


Prerequisites

No prerequisites


Objectives and Contextualisation

The central objective of the course is to introduce students to the major epistemological traditions of the world, starting from recent developments in Western epistemology to recognize our frame of reference as what it is, a situated and not culturally neutral framework. Emphasis is placed on understanding the differences and specificities between the major Greek, Indian, and Chinese epistemological traditions, and on problematizing their relationships with the epistemologies of other cultures and periods. It also aims to analyze how knowledge of these frameworks enriches current issues in globalized epistemology.


Learning Outcomes

  1. CM01 (Competence) Interpret current and past world events from social and humanities disciplines.
  2. CM03 (Competence) Adequately transmit information, ideas and arguments from the social and human sciences in order to explain an anthropological fact.
  3. KM02 (Knowledge) Recognise and integrate the basic concepts of related disciplines in the analysis of social phenomena.
  4. KM03 (Knowledge) Give information about anthropological topics to general and specialised audiences using ICT.
  5. SM01 (Skill) Describe social phenomena in a theoretically relevant way from related sciences, taking into account the complexity of the factors involved, their causes and effects.
  6. SM04 (Skill) Adequately use the basic language of related sciences in both oral and written expression.

Content

1. Contemporary epistemology in its framework: the roots of the Gettier problem in the specificity of Western culture
2. Society, virtues, and justice in epistemology: the reason for late arrivals in hegemonic epistemology
3. The Greco-Roman and Christian roots of Western epistemology
4. Vedic-rooted epistemology: the Nyaya school and its impact
5. Foundations of Chinese epistemology: Confucianism, Mohism, and Daoism
6. The sociocognitive framework of the development of the three great traditions: oikos, griha, and jia.
7. Islamic epistemologies: Avicenna, Al-Ghazali, and the development of Islamic philosophy
8. Colonial epistemologies vs. “indigenous” epistemologies: African, Afro-Caribbean, and Native American traditions
9. The feminist question in situated epistemologies
10. The praxis of epistemology in a globalized world: the impact of modernity, postmodernity, and technology


Activities and Methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Autonomous work 70 2.8 CM01, CM03, KM02, KM03, SM01, SM04, CM01
master classes 50 2 CM01, CM03, KM02, SM01, CM01
Type: Supervised      
Class debates 22.5 0.9 CM01, CM03, KM02, KM03, SM01, SM04, CM01

The course methodology will focus on rigorous and ongoing assessment of the subject:

  1. Students will engage in comprehensive readings of strategic texts relevant to the subject matter, which they must prepare before scheduled discussion sessions. These texts will be accessible to students via the virtual campus one week prior to the class dedicated to collective discussion and text commentary.
  2. Additionally, the course instructor will provide theoretical explanations of the key topics outlined in the curriculum.

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.


Assessment

Continous Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Test exams (2) 50% (25%+25%) 3.5 0.14 CM01, KM02, KM03, SM01
Written essay (X2) 50% (25%+25%) 4 0.16 CM01, CM03, KM02, KM03, SM01, SM04

  • The evaluation process includes three assessment activities distributed throughout the course: Exam (50 %), Essay (40 %), Optional Oral Presentation (10 %).

  • The virtual campus will be used to prepare the readings to be discussed in class.

  • At the time of each assessment activity, the teaching staff will inform students (via Moodle, to ensure an official record) of the review procedure and date. Grades must be published within a maximum of three weeks and, for reassessable activities, the final grade must be available at least 72 hours before the resit exam.

  • Class participation may account for up to 20 % of the final grade.

  • The schedule of assessment activities may not be changed (except in duly justified exceptional cases).

  • Students on Erasmus who request to sit an exam early must submit an official letter from their home institution justifying the request.

Recovery procedure

  • To participate in the recovery stage, students must have been previously assessed in a set of activities whose weight accounts for at least two-thirds of the total grade or have achieved a minimum average of 3.5 in the course.

  • Recoverable assessments for all students include exams and essays; other activities (e.g. oral presentations) are not recoverable.

  • The same recovery system as for continuous assessment will be applied.

Not assessed

  • Students will receive a “Not assessed” grade if they have not submitted more than 30 % of the assessment activities.

Plagiarism and academic misconduct

  • In the event of any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade of an assessment activity, that activity will be graded zero, regardless of any disciplinary process that may follow. In the event of multiple irregularities in the assessment activities of the same course, the final grade for that course will be zero. Assessment activities in which irregularities have occurred (cheating, misuse of AI, etc.) are not recoverable.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  • This subject allows the use of AI technologies as an integral part of the submitted work, provided that the final result reflects a significant contribution from the student in terms of analysis and personal reflection. The student must (i) identify which parts have been generated using AI technology; (ii) specify the tools used; and (iii) include a critical reflection on how these have influenced the process and final outcome of the activity. Lack of transparency regarding the use of AI in the assessed activity will be considered academic dishonesty; the corresponding grade may be lowered, or the work may even be awarded a zero. In cases of greater infringement, more serious action may be taken.

UAB Academic Regulations
https://www.uab.cat/doc/TR_normativa_academica_UAB

Single Assessment

  • Single assessment will consist of three written tests conducted over one week.

  • The first test will be a text commentary worth 40 % of the final grade.

  • The second test will be a short essay developing a course topic worth 40 % of the final grade.

  • The third test will be a multiple-choice exam worth 20 % of the final grade.


Bibliography

Gettier, Edmund L. (2021). Is Justified True Belief Knowledge? In Stephen Hetherington (Ed.), The Philosophy of Knowledge: A History. Routledge.
Link: https://www.routledge.com/The-Philosophy-of-Knowledge-A-History/Hetherington/p/book/9780367334971

Goldman, Alvin Ira (2022). Knowledge in a Social World. Oxford University Press.
Link: https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/0198238207.001.0001/acprof-9780198238201

Zagzebski, Linda Trinkaus (2020). Virtues of the Mind: An Inquiry into the Nature of Virtue and the Ethical Foundations of Knowledge. Cambridge University Press.
Link: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/virtues-of-the-mind/441A6BCB4C20950990F4BB525D49248E

Plató (Plato) (2018). Fedó (trad. Josep Vives i Solé). Edicions 62.
Link (PDF): https://www.biblioteca.org.ar/libros/147333.pdf

Fraser, Nancy (2008). Escalasde Justicia: Reimaginando el espacio político en un mundo globalizado. Herder Editorial.
Link: https://herdereditorial.com/producto/escalas-de-justicia/

Chakrabarti, Kisor Kumar (2010). Classical Indian Philosophy of Induction: The Nyaya Viewpoint. Lexington Books.
Link: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780739142788/Classical-Indian-Philosophy-of-Induction-The-Nyaya-Viewpoint

Feng, Youlan (2019). A Short History of Chinese Philosophy (trans. Derk Bodde). Free Press.
Link (PDF): https://archive.org/details/shorthistoryofch00feng_0

Graham, Angus Charles (2015). Later Mohist Logic, Ethics and Science. Chinese University Press.
Link: https://www.cuhk.edu.hk/ics/21c/en/book_reviews.html?id=56

Nasr, Seyyed Hossein (2023). Islamic Philosophy from Its Origin to the Present: Philosophy in the Land of Prophecy. SUNY Press.
Link: https://sunypress.edu/Books/I/Islamic-Philosophy-from-Its-Origin-to-the-Present2

Wiredu, Kwasi (2020). Cultural Universals and Particulars: An African Perspective. Indiana University Press.
Link: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt2005s3z

Smith, Linda Tuhiwai (2021). Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples (3rd ed.). Zed Books/Bloomsbury.
Link: https://www.bloomsburycollections.com/book/decolonizing-methodologies-research-and-indigenous-peoples-3rd-edition/

Cajete, Gregory (2020). Native Science: Natural Laws of Interdependence. Clear Light Publishers.
Link (PDF): https://archive.org/details/nativesciencena00caje


Software

No specific software required

 


Groups and Languages

Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2025. You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject.

Name Group Language Semester Turn
(PAUL) Classroom practices 1 Catalan second semester morning-mixed
(TE) Theory 1 Catalan second semester morning-mixed