Course Listing

An exploration of philosophical treatments of love and desire, in order to consider fundamental questions of human nature, happiness and moral practices. Readings in classic and contemporary texts may include such topics as the nature of love, the relationship between what we value and what we desire, and the ethics of relationships. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits or permission of department chair.

A philosophical study of sport and recreation. Topics include conceptual, ethical, political, and aesthetic perspectives on sports, games, play, and leisure. Specific attention will be paid to philosophical issues concerning human movement and physical activity, embodiment and the mind-body relationship, and well-being and quality of life. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits or permission of department chair.

Cross-listed: KINE-2020H

An exploration of philosophical treatments of death and dying, including their implications for a meaningful life. Readings in classical and contemporary texts may include such topics as the nature of death, our attitudes toward mortality, and end-of-life issues. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits or permission of department chair.

An engaged study of philosophical responses to ethical problems in contemporary society. Topics may include abortion, euthanasia, capital punishment, animal rights, censorship and pornography, poverty and civil disobedience, and war and terrorism. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits or permission of department chair. Excludes PHIL 2300Y.

What is feminist theory, and what does it have to do with making/practicing social change? This course explores some of the key historical and contemporary feminist theories, inviting debate about the many different ways that feminists have explained and analyzed social inequalities, imagined alternatives, and strategized for gender justice. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits including 0.5 GESO, WMST or PHIL credit at the 1000 level, or permission of instructor. Excludes WMST 2141H.

Cross-listed: GESO-2141H

A study of philosophical theories concerning the nature of law, legal systems, and legal reasoning. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits or permission of department chair. Excludes PHIL-POST 2032Y.

Cross-listed: POST-2150H

Education is one of the most significant human occupations, in both the formal and informal understandings of the concept. In this course, we explore philosophical enquiries related to education, focusing on the nature, purpose, and aims of education, effective teaching and learning, issues of social justice, equity, and access. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits.

Cross-listed: EDUC-2200H

An introduction to some of the central themes in philosophy of mind. Answers to ontological questions (what kinds of things are minds?) and epistemological questions (can we know that we and others have minds?) are used to focus discussions concerning personal identity, responsibility for action, animals' minds, and artificial intelligence. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits or permission of department chair. Excludes PHIL-PSYC 2770Y.

Cross-listed: PSYC-2270H

A study of selected figures in Existentialism. Topics may include nihilism, creation, the birth of the individual, the meaning of life, freedom, choice, and commitment. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits or permission of department chair. Excludes PHIL 2140Y, 2340H, 2360H.

Drawing on texts in political theory and other media (e.g. literature, film, theatre), explores core themes in the political imagination of the ancient and modern worlds. Through an exploration of different perspectives on politics and its possibilities, the course opens a particular route of access to political thought. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits or permission of instructor.

Cross-listed: POST-2351H

Drawing on texts in political theory and other media (e.g. literature, film, theatre), explores core themes in the political imagination of the contemporary world. Through an exploration of different perspectives on politics and its possibilities, the course opens a particular route of access to political thought. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits or permission of instructor.

Cross-listed: POST-2352H

An examination of central issues in the field of biomedical ethics. Topics may include abortion; euthanasia and assisted suicide; stem cell research; genetics; reproductive technologies; scarce resources; research using human subjects. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits or permission of department chair.

An introductory study of formal logical systems, together with their use in the analysis of various types of arguments. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits or permission of department chair.

Cross-listed: COIS-2410H

A study of early Greek philosophy focusing on Socrates, Plato, and their most influential predecessors. Complements PHIL-AHCL 2430H. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits or permission of department chair. Excludes PHIL-AHCL 2400Y.

Cross-listed: AGRS-2420H

A study of Greco-Roman philosophy focusing on Aristotle and the Hellenistic philosophers including the Epicureans and Stoics. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits or permission of department chair. Recommended: PHIL-AGRS-AHCL 2420H. Excludes PHIL-AHCL 2400Y.

Cross-listed: AGRS-2430H

A critical examination of social and legal responses to violence. Specific attention is paid to legal punishment as a response to violence, and punishment as a form of violence. Retributive and restorative conceptions of justice are considered. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits including CRIM 1615H, or permission of the instructor.

Cross-listed: CRIM-2618H

An inquiry into the nature of religion and religious belief; the relations among faith, reason, knowledge, and revelation; the analysis of religious language; the mystical claim to direct knowledge of God; the nature of evil; and religion and ethics. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits or permission of the department chair.

A philosophical examination of the construction and validation of scientific theories, models, and experiments, with special emphasis on the question of whether science has a reliable claim to provide one objective truth about the material and human world on the basis of a uniquely rational form of inquiry. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits or permission of department chair.

An introduction to philosophical issues related to art and beauty. Topics may include definitions of art; concepts of beauty, ugliness, horror, taste, and sublimity; the value and diversity of aesthetic experience; differences between authentic artwork and forgery; relations between morality and art; and art as an institution. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits or permission of department chair.

A study of philosophy in literature and of the relationship between philosophy and literature. The focus is on the expression of philosophical ideas in literary or non-philosophical texts. Prerequisite: 7.0 university credits or permission of department chair.

An examination of theories of emotion in classical and contemporary philosophical texts. Topics may include the relation of emotion to belief, motivation, and desire; the rationality of emotion; emotions, self-knowledge and self-deception; the relations between different emotions and between emotions and the body. Prerequisite: 7.0 university credits including one of PHIL 2020H, PHIL-PSYC 2270H, or PSYC 2400H.

Cross-listed: PSYC-3020H

An examination of ways of thinking about and ways of answering the question, "What is the meaning of life?" Classical attempts to account for the meaning of life in Eastern and Western philosophies, religious thought, and Indigenous knowledge systems are considered in relation to accounts defended in contemporary philosophical literature. Prerequisite: 7.0 university credits or permission of department chair.

A study of philosophical concepts of gender, sex and sexuality, feminist critique, and developments in feminist philosophies. Prerequisite 7.0 university credits or permission of department chair. Excludes PHIL-WMST 2031Y.

Cross-listed: GESO-3050H

A study of texts in the foundations of morals and particular ethical theories, including virtue ethics, Kantianism, and utilitarianism. Prerequisite: 7.0 university credits or permission of department chair. Excludes PHIL 3380Y.

A study of the nature and value of rights in relation to competing theories of justice. Attention is given to the nature of power and oppression in relation to social change; topics may include class, ability, age, gender, and race. Prerequisite: 7.0 university credits or permission of department chair. Excludes PHIL-POST 2032Y.

Cross-listed: POST-3140H

An examination of philosophical theories related to political institutions and practices. Topics may include the foundations of the state, justified use of force, and limits to freedom. Prerequisite: 7.0 university credits or permission of department chair. Excludes PHIL 3390Y.

Cross-listed: POST-3180H

A wide-ranging introduction to the theory of knowledge. Topics may include the nature and limits of knowledge, external world skepticism, truth and objectivity, relativism, the possibility of moral knowledge, induction and the status of scientific theories, and the nature of rationality. Readings include classical as well as contemporary readings, with an emphasis on the latter. Prerequisite: 7.0 university credits or permission of department chair. Excludes PHIL 3200Y.

A wide-ranging introduction to metaphysics. Topics may include realism and anti-realism, monism and pluralism, substance, change and identity, causation, events, free will and determinism, space and time, universals, properties, necessity, and possible worlds. Readings include classical as well as contemporary readings, with an emphasis on the latter. Prerequisite: 7.0 university credits or permission of department chair. Excludes PHIL 3200Y

An examination of philosophical questions pertaining to artificial intelligence (AI) and the role AI plays in society. The first part treats the history, nature, and limits of AI. The second part turns to more applied questions related to ethics, and the social and political implications of AI. Prerequisite: 7.0 university credits or permission of the department chair.

Cross-listed: COIS-3270H

An interdisciplinary study of the philosophy of dreams, incorporating perspectives from philosophy, psychology, cognitive science, and neuroscience. The course focuses on epistemological issues relating to the nature of dreams, our knowledge of dreams, the self in dreams, and the science of dreaming. Prerequisite: Prerequisite: 7.0 university credits including 1.0 PHIL credit or permission of department chair. Recommended: PHIL 2270H.

Provides a consideration of the moral dimensions of human/nonhuman relationships. We critically examine a range of systems of thought that address such ethical questions, including deep ecology, ecofeminism, Indigenous perspectives, and animal rights, with specific cases on each philosophical orientation. Deals explicitly with the ethical dimensions of ecological restoration. Prerequisite: 1.0 ERST or PHIL credit at the 2000 level or beyond. Excludes ERST 3300Y.

Cross-listed: ERST-3301H

Provides an introduction to animal studies. Topics considered include the constructed divide between humans and non-human animals, societies' use of animals-for food, clothing, entertainment, companionship, research-and the implications of these relationships. The course will also discuss animal rights, animal protection, and posthumanist perspectives. Prerequisite: 1.0 ERST or PHIL credit at the 2000 level or beyond.

Cross-listed: ERST-3302H, SAFS-3302H

A focused study of philosophical issues related to language and meaning. Topics may include theories of meaning, intentionality, and reference; the relation between language and reality; concepts; analysis; and hermeneutics. Prerequisite: 7.0 university credits or permission of department chair.

Enables students to develop their own positions about the most important social and moral problems raised by computer use and technologies, including the fragmentation of society into computer "haves" and "have-nots," Internet censorship, pornography, intellectual property rights, and software piracy. Prerequisite: 7.0 university credits or permission of department chair.

Cross-listed: MDST-3370H, COIS-3370H

Introduces students to critical perspectives that push thinking about disability beyond medical and social models. Focuses on connections between gender and disability. Explores feminist challenges to ableism. Other topics include bodies, race, sexuality, education, creativity, access, eugenics, intersections, and austerity. Prerequisite: 6.0 university credits. Excludes WMST 3300H, 3400H.

Cross-listed: GESO-3400H, SOCI-3400H

The seventeenth century in Western Europe was an era of important revolutions in scientific, religious, and political thinking. This course studies the role that philosophers and their works played in these revolutions. Authors may include, but are not limited to, Descartes, Princess Elisabeth, Hobbes, Spinoza, Leibniz, and Conway. Complements PHIL 3430H. Prerequisite: 7.0 university credits or permission of department chair. Excludes PHIL 3100Y.

The eighteenth century in Western Europe witnessed the rise and then critique of the intellectual movement called the "Enlightenment," characterized by its promotion of freedom, equality, and the scientific method. This course studies philosophers sympathetic to and critical of the Enlightenment, such as Locke, Voltaire, Hume, Rousseau, and Kant. Prerequisite: 7.0 university credits or permission of department chair. Recommended: PHIL 3420H. Excludes PHIL 3100Y.

A seminar devoted to in-depth investigation of selected central metaphysical and epistemological themes. Prerequisite: 7.0 university credits or permission of department chair.

Examines a number of ethical issues raised by for-profit corporations, including whether corporations are moral agents and the purpose of corporations. Considers stakeholder theory, stockholder theory, Integrative Social Contact Theory, and CSR. Analyzes numerous case studies of corporate actions. Prerequisite: 12.0 university credits, of which 5.0 must be ADMN credits including ADMN 3300H; or both PHIL 1200H and 2110H. Excludes ADMN-PHIL 4200Y.

Cross-listed: ADMN-4250H

An interdisciplinary study of the philosophy of dreams, incorporating perspectives from philosophy, psychology, cognitive science, and neuroscience. The course focuses on epistemological issues relating to the nature of dreams, our knowledge of dreams, the self in dreams, and the science of dreaming. Prerequisite: Prerequisite: 7.0 university credits including 1.0 PHIL credit or permission of department chair. Recommended: PHIL 2270H.

A study of central themes in value theory, to be chosen among issues in moral theory and political theory. Prerequisite: 7.0 university credits including PHIL 3110H, or permission of department chair.

Drawing on political theory, the course explores the relationship between power, forms of resistance, and the hope for and potential practices of alternative forms of politics. In doing so, it focuses on concepts such as oppression and domination, subjectivity, democracy, utopia, and prefigurative politics. Prerequisite: 12.0 university credits including 1.0 credit from POST-PHIL 2351H and 2352H or POST 3335H; or permission of instructor.

Cross-listed: POST-4331H

An in-depth examination of a specific issue in biomedical ethics. Topics vary each year and may include cloning and stem cell research; reproductive technologies, including abortion; genetics; end-of-life issues; justice in health care delivery. Prerequisite: 7.0 university credits including PHIL 2390H, or permission of instructor.

A study of some central themes and important philosophers of the nineteenth century. Prerequisite: 7.0 university credits including both 3420H or 3430H, or permission of instructor.

A study of some central themes and important philosophers of the twentieth century. Prerequisite: 7.0 university credits including PHIL 2410H, 3420H, or 3430H, or permission of instructor.

An in-depth investigation into some of the central issues in philosophy of mind, e.g., consciousness, embodiment, reasons for actions, the emotions, free will, zombies, thinking machines, conscious animals. Prerequisite: 7.0 university credits including PHIL-PSYC 2270H or permission of instructor.

Students will be encouraged to pursue a special interest, largely through independent study, for a half- or full-course credit. Details must be arranged in consultation with the staff in Philosophy at least one month prior to the start of the semester in which the course is to be started. Subject to departmental and decanal approval. Prerequisite: 7.0 university credits or permission of department chair.