Philosophy—Courses
Please note that not every course listed is offered each year and that students should consult the following sources for current course offerings:
COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
1. Introductory
PHIL-1006. Introduction to Philosophy
An introduction, through lecture, reading of original sources, and discussion, to the origins and development of western philosophy. The first part of the course studies this tradition from its beginnings in ancient Greece through the Christian Middle Ages. Authors read include Plato, Aristotle, St. Augustine, and St. Thomas Aquinas. Themes include the nature of reality, the nature of human being and human knowledge; moral and political philosophy; the existence and nature of God. The latter part of the course continues the survey of developments in western philosophy, from the early modern period to contemporary discussion. The focus is on rationalism, empiricism, idealism, and the reactions these provoked.
PHIL-1013. Introduction to Western Philosophy I
An introduction, through lecture, reading of original sources, and discussion, to the origins and development of western philosophy from its beginnings in ancient Greece through the Middle Ages. Authors read include Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, and Thomas Aquinas. Themes: the nature of reality, the nature of human being and human knowledge; moral and political philosophy; the existence and nature of God.
PHIL-1023. Introduction to Western Philosophy II
A continuation of the survey of developments in western philosophy, through lecture, reading of original sources, and discussion, from the early modern period to contemporary discussion. Focus: rationalism, empiricism, idealism, and the reactions these provoked. Prerequisite: PHIL 1013, or permission of the instructor.
2. History of Philosophy
PHIL-2113. Classical Western Philosophy I
A lecture course concentrating on Classical Greek philosophy, from its origins in the earliest Ionian cosmologists up to the Sophists, Socrates, and Plato. Thematic focus: the nature of nature, the nature of knowledge, the nature of being, the nature of the human being, as well as moral, social, and political philosophy. Prerequisites: PHIL 1013 and 1023, or permission of the insturctor.
PHIL-2123. Classical Western Philosophy II
A lecture course covering the history of Greek philosophy from Aristotle, through the Epicurean and Stoic schools, up to Plotinus. The course also includes a treatment of some of the great Roman philosophers. Prerequisite: PHIL 1013 and 1023, or permission of the instructor.
PHIL-2133. Medieval Philosophy I
A lecture course covering Medieval philosophy from its earliest origins, culminating in the Platonism of Augustine, Boethius, John Scotus Eriugena and Anselm. Prerequisites: PHIL 1013 and PHIL 1023, or permission of the instructor.
PHIL-2143. Medieval Philosophy II
A lecture course covering the Medieval philosophy of the 13th century (especially Thomas Aquinas), the collapse of the Thomistic synthesis in fourteenth century philosophy, and the beginning of the Modern outlook. Prerequisites: PHIL 1013 and 1023, or permission of the instructor.
PHIL-2153. Modern Philosophy I
A study, through reading, lecture, and discussion, of Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz. Prerequisites: PHIL 1013 and 1023, or permission of the instructor.
PHIL-2163. Modern Philosophy II
A study, through reading, lecture, and discussion, of the British empiricists. Prerequisites: PHIL 1013 and 1023, or permission of the instructor.
3. Moral Philosophy
PHIL-2213. Introduction to Moral Philosophy
An examination, through readings, lectures, and discussion, of some important attempts to ground ethical judgments. Themes: relativism, egoism, values, and sentiment; values and consequences; the determination of duty.
PHIL-2233. Contemporary Moral Philosophy
An investigation, through readings, lectures, and discussion, of contemporary issues and authors in moral philosophy. Topics include: Nietzsche and the transvaluation of values, existentialist ethics, emotivism, Marxism and ethics, the natural law debate, situation ethics, the logic and meaning of ethical discourse. Prerequisite: PHIL 2213 or permission of the instructor.
PHIL-2243. Current Issues in Ethics
A discussion, through lectures and student presentations, of ethical theory through its application in the consideration of such contemporary issues as: pornography and censorship, euthanasia, abortion, punishment, justice and welfare, sexual and racial discrimination. Prerequisite: Phil 2213 or permission of the instructor.
4. Legal and Political Philosophy
PHIL-2303. Western Tradition of Political Philosophy I (POLS)
This course will introduce students to seminal texts in political philosophy focussing on the ancient and early medieval period. Texts may include: Plato's Apology, Plato's Republic, Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics, Aristotle's Politics, Bible, and St. Augustine's City of God.
PHIL-2313. Western Tradition of Political Philosophy II (POLS)
This course will introduce students to seminal texts in political philosophy focussing on the medieval, early modern and modern periods. Texts may include: Aquinas' Treatise on Law, Machiavelli's The Prince, Hobbes' Leviathan, Locke's The Second Treatise on Government, Rousseau's Discourses, Hegel's Introduction to the Philosophy of History. Prerequisite: POLS 2803.
PHIL-3313. Philosophy of Human Rights
This course will introduce students to philosophical questions concerning the foundation of human rights. What are human rights based on? What makes something a human right? Are human rights universally and permanently valid, or is the notion of human rights merely a construct of modern Western culture? The course will familiarize students with alternative theoretical answers to these and other related questions. Prerequisite: HMRT 2003, or permission of the instructor.
PHIL-3343. Human Nature, Society, Justice and Law I: Classical and Early Early Modern Societies
A lecture course concentrating on philosophies of human nature in relation to civil society, justice, and law. Principal question: Is human nature good or bad? pro-social or sociopathic? Applications: competing theories of justice, law, and sanction, including issues of enforcement and correction. Philosophers: Sophists, Plato, Aristotle, Stoics, St. Augustine, St. Thomas, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke. Prerequisite: PHIL 1013 or 1023, or permission of the instructor.
PHIL-3353. Human Nature, Society, Justice and Law II: Late Modern Contemporary Theories
A lecture course concentrating on the main contemporary views of human nature, in relation to civil society, justice, and law. Principal issue: Is human nature good or bad? pro-social or sociopathic? Applications: competing theories of justice, law, and sanction, including issues of enforcement and correction. Philosophers: Hume, Rousseau, Hegel, Bentham, Mill, Green, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Freud, Dewey, Sartre.
5. Themes and Authors
PHIL-2513. Introduction to Logic (MATH)
A lecture course in which students learn how to identify and evaluate arguments drawn from a wide variety of sources. It will develop informal methods such as the identification of argument structure and informal fallacies. It will also develop formal methods that involve taking arguments in English, symbolizing them in a formal language, and evaluating strengths and weaknesses of the argument forms. Also covered are basic probability theory, inductive logic, and statistical reasoning.
PHIL-2523. Introduction to Aesthetics
In this course, we will investigate and critically assess some of the most influential attempts in the history of philosophy to respond to art and artistic expression. Readings will include selections from a variety of philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Hegel, Heidegger, and Benjamin.
PHIL-3106. Love and Friendship
This course will explore the interrelated themes of friendship, love and beauty. Each theme will be examined separately and as connected to the others. Ancient and modern texts will be used to examine the ways that different ages have addressed these fundamentally personal and yet common human experiences. Texts will vary from year to year but may include works such as Plato's Symposium and Lysis, Rousseau's Emile, Descartes' Passions of the Mind. Prerequisite: GRID 2006 or 2106, or permission of the instructor.
PHIL-3206. Human Nature and Technology
This course will study the way in which diverse thinkers have considered the question of human nature. This question will be sharpened with a consideration of the way in which human beings considered as natural beings use and are affected by technology. Texts will vary from year to year, but may include works such as: Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound, Bacon's New Atlantis, Grant's Technology and Empire, Heidegger's The Question Concerning Technology, Fukuyama's The Posthuman Future. Prerequisite: GRID 2006 or 2106, or permission of the instructor.
PHIL-3413. God in Western Thought
A survey, through lectures, readings, and discussion, of Western philosophical speculation regarding the divine. Themes: theism and atheism in classical antiquity; demonstrations of God's existence in medieval philosophy; the effect on religious belief of empiricism, idealism, Marxism, and existentialism. Prerequisites: PHIL 1013 and 1023, or permission of the instructor.
PHIL-3443. Hegel's Philosophy of Religion
This course will involve a consideration of G.W.F. Hegel's philosophy of religion. The primary text will be Hegel's Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion, although consideration may be given to other relevant material from the Phenomenology of Spirit and the Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences. Prerequisites: PHIL 2153 and 2163, or PHIL 3623, or permission of the instructor.
PHIL-3503. Plato
This course will involve a close reading of a number of dialogues representing diverse aspects of the Platonic corpus. These will include Laches, Lysis, Ion, Philebus, and others. Prerequisites: PHIL 2113 and 2123, or permission of the instructor.
PHIL-3513. Aristotle
This course will involve a close reading of several Aristotelian works. Prerequisite: PHIL 2113 and 2123, or permission of the instructor.
PHIL-3523. Thomas Aquinas: Knowledge, Being, and Human Being
A lecture course covering the philosophy of Aquinas and its relation to the previous history of philosophy, and to the historical context of St. Thomas' own time. Thematic focus: philosophy of knowledge, of being, and of human nature. Prerequisites: PHIL 2113, 2123, 2133, 2143, or permission of the instructor.
PHIL-3533. Thomas Aquinas: Law, Morality, Society
A lecture course covering the fundamentals of the legal, moral, and political philosophy of Aquinas and its relation to the previous history of philosophy and to the historical and cultural context of the high middle ages. Prerequisite: PHIL 3523 or permission of the instructor.
PHIL-3543. Existential Philosophy
A study of existential thinking, its fundamental structure, and its importance for a contemporary understanding of the human situation. Prerequisite: PHIL 1013 and 1023, or permission of the instructor.
PHIL-3553. Augustine
This course will involve a close reading of the major works of St. Augustine, among which will be The Confessions, The Trinity, and The City of God. Prerequisite: PHIL 1013 or permission of the instructor.
PHIL-3563. Philosophy of Science
This course will examine science from the perspective of philosophy. Topics will include the historical relation between science and philosophy, the differences between the social and the physical sciences, the nature of scientific change in history, the role of values in science, the reality of theoretical objects of science, and feminist alternatives to traditional scientific research. Examples will be drawn from both the physical and the social sciences. Presupposes no previous exposure to any particular areas of science.
PHIL-3573. Dante (and the Medieval Aristotelian Tradition)
This course will involve a close reading of the major works of Dante Alighieri, especially The Divine Comedy. Attention will be directed to Dante's synthesis of Aristotelian philosophy and the theology and philosophy of Thomas Aquinas. Prerequisites: PHIL 2113 and 2123 or PHIL 2133 and 2143.
PHIL-3613. Kant
In this course, we will focus primarily on Kant's Critique of Pure Reason as we work through the implications his position has for both theoretical and moral philosophy. Prerequisite: PHIL 2153 or 2163 or permission of the instructor.
PHIL-3623. Hegel
This course will involve a careful study of Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit, focusing primarily on the relationships between theory and practice, and truth and history. Prerequisite: PHIL 2153 or 2163 or permission of the instructor.
PHIL-3633. Marx
This lecture course will involve a close reading of some of Karl Marx's most influential work. As we read through portions of The German Ideology, the Grundrisse, The Holy Family and Capital, we will consider 1) Marx's relationship with and response to his predecessors, and 2) his critical reassessment of philosophical and political practice, human nature, history and economic theory. Prerequistie: 9 credit hours in philosophy or permisson of the instructor.
PHIL-3643. Kierkegaard and Nietzsche
This course will engage and critically assess the views of the two leading figures in 19th century existentialism, Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche. Prerequisites: PHIL 1013 and 1023, or permission of the instructor.
PHIL-3653. Contemporary Continental Philosophy
This course will engage and critically assess the views of some of the most important thinkers in recent European philosophy such as Merleau-Ponty, Benjamin, Blanchot, Bataille, Levinas, Foucault, Derrida, Lyotard. Prerequisite: PHIL 3543 or permission of the instructor.
PHIL-3663. Analytic Philosophy I
This is a lecture course covering topics of current interest in Analytic Philosophy, a movement in, and a style of doing, philosophy that has been prominent in the English-speaking world since the beginning of the 20th century. Topics will vary and will normally be drawn from one or more of the following sub-disciplines: epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, philosophy of science. Prerequisites: PHIL 1013 and 1023, or permission of the instructor.
PHIL-3673. Analytic Philosophy II
This course is meant to complement PHIL 3663, but it may be taken independently. It is a lecture course covering topics of current interest in Analytic Philosophy, a movement in, and a style of doing, philosophy that has been prominent in the English-speaking world since the beginning of the 20th century. Topics will vary and will normally be drawn from one or more of the following sub-disciplines: epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, philosophy of science. Prerequisites: PHIL 1013 and 1023, or permission of the instructor.
PHIL-3763. Martin Heidegger
In this course, we will engage in a close reading of selected works by Martin Heidegger. We will consider Heidegger's attempt to raise anew the urgent question of being; specifically, how his development of this question demands a radical assessment of many of our most dearly held assumptions about truth, human nature, knowledge and reality, freedom and responsibility, history and time. Prerequisite: PHIL 3543 or permission of instructor.
PHIL-3813. Introduction to Logic II (MATH)
This is a course in first-order symbolic logic in its second main branch (predicate logic). The aim is to acquaint students with the formal language of modern deductive logic and to develop the basic techniques of good deductive reasoning. The course will be of interest to philosophy majors in particular (especially those who are planning to do graduate work in philosophy), but will benefit anyone who wants to acquire skills in abstract thinking. A good grounding in sentential logic is presupposed.
6. Tutorials and Independent Studies
PHIL-4886. Honours Seminar
Directed by a Department member on a topic approved by the Department, this seminar for Philosophy Honours students in their final year will involve, among other requirements, the preparation and presentation of a major essay. Normally, this option will not be available when PHIL 4996 Honours Thesis is offered.
PHIL-4983. Independent Studies
Special courses in philosophical reading and writing under the direction of members of the Department of philosophy may be permitted by the Chair of the Department.
PHIL-4996. Honours Thesis
Students honouring in philosophy will submit, normally in the final semester of their B.A. programme, an extended paper resulting from independent research, and written under the guidance of a director chosen from among the members of the department. 6 credit hours.