Course Listing
Please visit the Academic Timetable to see which courses are presently being offered and in which location(s). Not all courses listed below run every term or in all locations. For specific details about program requirements and degree regulations, please refer to the Academic Calendar.
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| Course Code | Description | Cross Listed With |
|---|---|---|
| PHIL-1000H | Intro Phil Knowlege & Reality An introduction to philosophy through a study of fundamental philosophical problems concerning the nature of reality, knowledge, and the mind, as presented in contemporary writings and/or classical texts. Complements PHIL 1100H. Excludes PHIL 1001Y, 1003H. | |
| PHIL-1100H | Intro to Phil Moral & Political An introduction to philosophy through a study of fundamental philosophical problems in moral and political philosophy, as presented in contemporary writings and/or classical texts. Complements PHIL 1000H. Excludes PHIL 1001Y, 1002H. | |
| PHIL-1200H | Critical Thinking An introduction to basic principles of good reasoning and argumentation in everyday life and various academic disciplines. Topics include argument structure and evaluation, clarity of expression, common mistakes in reasoning, inductive and deductive reasoning, and formal logic. Excludes PHIL 1004H, 1005Y, UNIV 1002H. |
| Course Code | Description | Cross Listed With |
|---|---|---|
| PHIL-2010H | Love & Desire 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. | |
| PHIL-2020H | Philosophy of Sport & Recreation 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. | |
| PHIL-2030H | Death 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. | |
| PHIL-2110H | Moral Issues 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. | |
| PHIL-2141H | Discovering Feminist Thought 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 WMST 1001H and 1002H. Excludes WMST 2040Y. | WMST-2141H |
| PHIL-2150H | Philosophy of Law 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. | POST-2150H |
| PHIL-2270H | Philosophy of Mind 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. | PSYC-2270H |
| PHIL-2320H | Existentialism 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. | |
| PHIL-2351H | Political Imagination 1 Political thought as it appears in a diversity of sources-e.g., literature, film, theatre-as well as established texts of political theory. With the classical and modern worlds as points of reference, this course opens a particular route of access to political thought. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits or permission of instructor. Excludes POST-PHIL 2350Y. | POST-2351H |
| PHIL-2352H | Political Imagination II Political thought as it appears in a diversity of sources- e.g., literature, film, theatre-as well as established texts of political theory. With the contemporary political world as its point of reference, this course opens a particular route of access to political thought. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits or permission of instructor. Excludes POST-PHIL 2350Y. | POST-2352H |
| PHIL-2390H | Biomedical Ethics 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. | |
| PHIL-2410H | Symbolic Logic 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. | COIS-2410H |
| PHIL-2420H | Ancient Philosophy I 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. | AHCL-2420H |
| PHIL-2430H | Ancient Philosophy II 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-AHCL 2420H. Excludes PHILAHCL 2400Y. | AHCL-2430H |
| PHIL-2780H | Philosophy of Science 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. | |
| PHIL-2790H | Aesthetics An introduction to issues in aesthetics and the philosophy of art. Topics may include definitions of art; aesthetic concepts of beauty, ugliness, taste, and sublimity; the value and diversity of aesthetic experience; relations between morality and art; and art as an institution. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits or permission of department chair. |
| Course Code | Description | Cross Listed With |
|---|---|---|
| PHIL-3020H | Philosophy of Emotion 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 or permission of department chair. | PSYC-3020H |
| PHIL-3030H | The Meaning of Life 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. | |
| PHIL-3050H | Philosophy, Gender and Feminism 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 PHILWMST 2031Y. | WMST-3050H |
| PHIL-3110H | Classics in Ethical Theory A study of canonical 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. | |
| PHIL-3120H | Contemporary Ethical Theory A study of twentieth- and twenty-first-century developments in ethical theory. Attention is given to the critical rethinking of traditional theories and to particular moral considerations such as those resulting from social change in relation to gender, race, and global development. Prerequisite: 7.0 university credits including PHIL 3110H or permission of department chair. Excludes PHIL 3380Y. | |
| PHIL-3140H | Justice & Rights 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. | POST-3140H |
| PHIL-3180H | Social & Political Philosophy 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. | POST-3180H |
| PHIL-3210H | Epistemology 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. | |
| PHIL-3301H | Environmental Ethics 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. | ERST-3301H |
| PHIL-3302H | Animals and Society 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. Excludes ERST 3300Y, ERST-PHIL 330. | ERST-3302H, SAFS-3302H |
| PHIL-3370H | Cyberethics 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. | COIS-3370H |
| PHIL-3400H | Feminism and Disability 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. | WMST-3400H, SOCI-3400H |
| PHIL-3420H | Early Modern I Reason and Revolution 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. | |
| PHIL-3430H | Early Modern II the Enlightenment 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. | |
| PHIL-3901H | Reading Course Students will be encouraged to pursue a special interest, largely through independent study, for a half- or full-course credit. Students must arrange details in consultation with faculty 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. |
| Course Code | Description | Cross Listed With |
|---|---|---|
| PHIL-4210H | Adv. Epistemology-Metaphysics A seminar devoted to in-depth investigation of selected central metaphysical and epistemological themes. Prerequisite: 7.0 university credits or permission of department chair. | |
| PHIL-4260H | Ethics & Capitalism Examines ethical issues raised by the free-market capitalist economic system such as justice and the distribution of wealth, capitalism and democracy, and ecological sustainability. Several theories of justice are considered. Prerequisite: 12.0 university credits, of which 5.0 must be ADMN credits including ADMN 3300H; or both PHIL 1200H (1005Y) and 2110H (2300Y). Excludes ADMN-PHIL 4200Y. | ADMN-4260H |
| PHIL-4310H | Adv. Topics in Value Theory A study of central themes in value theory, to be chosen among issues in moral theory, aesthetic theory, and political theory. Prerequisite: 7.0 university credits or permission of department chair. | |
| PHIL-4530H | 19th Century Philosophy A study of some central themes and important philosophers of the nineteenth century. Prerequisite: 7.0 university credits including PHIL 3100Y or both 3420H or 3430H, or permission of instructor. | |
| PHIL-4610H | Major Texts - I A close study of one or more central texts by one or more important philosophers. Texts and philosophers to change annually. Prerequisite: 7.0 university credits or permission of instructor. | |
| PHIL-4705H | Environmental Aesthetics and the Environmental Imagination This senior seminar in environmental philosophy examines the theme of environmental imagination. Topics include the use of artistic expression in environmental representation, environmental aesthetics, the theory of the environmental sublime, romanticism, and transcendental nature philosophy. Prerequisite: A minimum cumulative average of 75% in ERSC/ERST courses and one of ERST-PHIL 3301H or 3302H (or 3300Y) or 1.0 3000-level PHIL credit. Excludes ERST-PHIL 4700Y. | ERST-4705H |
| PHIL-4720H | Advanced Topics in Philosophy of Science A study of central themes in philosophy of science, to be chosen from among issues in metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics. Topics vary yearly and may include a focus on problems in one specific area of scientific inquiry. Prerequisite: 7.0 university credits including PHIL 2780H or permission of instructor. | |
| PHIL-4901H | Reading Course 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. |