Philosophy Courses
A. History of Philosophy Courses
Description:
This course studies Kant and his work in its historical context, such as the Critique of Pure Reason or other texts of Kant.Component(s):
SeminarDescription:
Subject matter varies from term to term and from year to year. Students may re-register for this course provided that the course content has changed.Component(s):
SeminarNotes:
- Subject matter varies from term to term and from year to year. Students may re-register for this course provided that the course content has changed.
Description:
This course studies the texts central to the development of ancient philosophical thought, such as works by Plato and Aristotle.Component(s):
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- Students who have received credit for PHIL601 or PHIL602 may not take this course for credit.
Description:
This course analyzes and discusses texts central to the development of medieval philosophical thought, in the Arabic and Latin traditions. Works by Avicenna, Averroes, and Thomas Aquinas are studied.Component(s):
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Students who have received credit for PHIL 604 may not take this course for credit.
Description:
This course studies central problems of 17th- and 18th-century European philosophy, from Bacon and Galileo at the beginning of the Scientific Revolution, through continental Rationalism (e.g., Descartes and Leibniz), to Hume and the legacy of British Empiricism.Component(s):
SeminarDescription:
This course studies the work of 19th-century philosophers in their historical context, such as Goethe, Schelling, Herder, and Hegel.Component(s):
SeminarDescription:
Subject matter varies from term to term and from year to year. Students may re-register for this course provided that the course content has changed.Component(s):
SeminarNotes:
- Subject matter varies from term to term and from year to year. Students may re-register for this course provided that the course content has changed.
Description:
This course provides an analysis of some of the central philosophical works in the analytic tradition from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Works by central figures such as Frege, Russell, Wittgenstein or Carnap are covered.Component(s):
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Students who have received credit for PHIL 663 may not take this course for credit.
Description:
Students study the sources of contemporary continental European thought in the 19th century and early 20th century, which are traced to German Idealism and Romanticism, Marxism, and early phenomenology. Authors studied may include Kant, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel, Marx, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Husserl.Component(s):
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Students who have received credit for PHIL 662 may not take this course for credit.
B. Aesthetics, Moral Philosophy, or Social and Political Philosophy Courses
Description:
Students examine a topic in value theory, such as the exploration of different conceptions of well-being, the good, or of virtues.Component(s):
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Students analyse central theories in normative ethics such as consequentialism, deontology, and contractualism; and in meta-ethnics such as realism, relativism, and moral nihilism.Component(s):
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Students investigate one or more approaches to difficult moral problems that confront us today, such as the need to find appropriate responses to war, revolution, tyranny, terrorism, global poverty, violence against women, and abortion.Component(s):
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This course examines central problems in the history of aesthetics and the philosophy of art, including the nature of beauty, the sublime, and the ontology of a work of art; or a study of a single text or author, such as Aristotle’s Poetics or Kant’s Critique of Judgment.Component(s):
SeminarDescription:
This course investigates central theories in political philosophy, concerning distributive justice, the theory of just war, democracy, civil disobedience, freedom of speech, responsibilities to future generations, human rights, global justice, multiculturalism, liberalism, socialism, anarchism, or feminism.Component(s):
LectureDescription:
Students study central works by Karl Marx. The course may also address important interpretations of Marx’s work, such as those developed by Analytic Marxists, Sartre, Althusser, Lukacs, or the Frankfurt School.Component(s):
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This course studies a central issue in philosophy of law, such as personality, property, rights, interpretation, responsibility, and punishment; or the jurisprudential perspective of such figures as Hart, Dworkin, Alexy, Luhmann, Weinrib, Waldron, Greenberg, Finnis, and Murphy.Component(s):
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Students who have received credit for PHIL 675 may not take this course for credit.
Description:
This course examines normative issues around genetic engineering or other biotechnologies, including moral, metaphysical, epistemic or political questions.
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- Students who have received credit for this topic under a PHIL 429, PHIL 498, BIOL 529, PHIL 530, or PHIL 633 number may not take this course for credit unless the instructor permits this.
Description:
This course examines important philosophical contributions to debates about justice, such as distributive justice, political justice, human rights, global justice, and inter-generational justice.Component(s):
SeminarC. Metaphysics, Epistemology, or Philosophy of Science Courses
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SeminarNotes:
- Subject matter varies from term to term and from year to year. Students may re-register for this course provided that the course content has changed.
Description:
This course helps students critically engage biology’s philosophical foundations. Topics typically include the nature of scientific reasoning, testing, and evidence in biology; how best to discover, define, and apply biological concepts; and how to structure the aims of biology to fit our diverse and changing societies.Component(s):
SeminarComponent(s):
SeminarNotes:
- Subject matter varies from term to term and from year to year. Students may re-register for this course provided that the course content has changed.
Students who have received credit for this topic under a PHIL 640 or PHIL 642 number may not take this course for credit.
Description:
This course provides an analysis of philosophical issues raised by science, such as those concerning scientific evidence, concepts, theories, and explanation; or the intersection with ethical and social problems.Component(s):
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Students who have received credit for PHIL 650 or 657 may not take this course for credit.
Description:
This course investigates some of the central issues and theories in the philosophy of mathematics such as logicism, intuitionism, or formalism. Other topics may include the nature of mathematical truth or the ontology and epistemology of mathematics.Component(s):
SeminarDescription:
Students analyse some aspects of the philosophy of language, such as the nature of meaning, the relation between language and thought, or the relation between language and the world.Component(s):
SeminarNotes:
Students who have received credit for PHIL 651 may not take this course for credit.
Description:
Students investigate central issues in the philosophy of mind, such as the architecture and modularity of the mind, the mind-body problem and mental causation, or the metaphysics and function of consciousness.Component(s):
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Students who have received credit for PHIL 664 may not take this course for credit.
Description:
Students study methods of various social and human sciences and the differences in aims between, for instance, understanding, explaining, experiencing, and being liberated from oppression.Component(s):
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Students who have received credit for this topic under a PHIL 655 number may not take this course for credit.
Description:
Drawing from classical and recent phenomenlogical philosophy, students study selected central figures such as Husserl, Heidegger, and issues such as meaning, the body, temporality, and phenomenological reduction.Component(s):
SeminarNotes:
Students who have received credit for PHIL 668 may not take this course for credit.
Component(s):
SeminarNotes:
- Subject matter varies from term to term and from year to year. Students may re-register for this course provided that the course content has changed.
Students who have received credit for PHIL 611 may not take this course for credit
Component(s):
SeminarNotes:
- Subject matter varies from term to term and from year to year. Students may re-register for this course provided that the course content has changed.
Students who have received credit for this topic under PHIL 666 may not take this course for credit.
Component(s):
SeminarNotes:
- Subject matter varies from term to term and from year to year. Students may re-register for this course provided that the course content has changed.
Description:
Subject matter varies from term to term and from year to year. Students may re-register for this course provided that the course content has changed. Changes in content are indicated by the letter following the course number, e.g. PHIL 659A, PHIL 659B, etc.Component(s):
SeminarNotes:
- Subject matter varies from term to term and from year to year. Students may re-register for this course provided that the course content has changed.
To be classified each year by the Graduate Program Director
Philosophy Research Thesis and Monograph Thesis
Description:
Students write and defend a thesis in the form of a major research paper on a topic to be determined in consultation with a faculty member, who serves as the supervisor. This form of master's thesis in philosophy is expected to consider all of the relevant scholarship pertaining to its argument and to make an original contribution to knowledge, in a manner comparable to a journal article. An oral defence of the research thesis is required before an examining committee consisting of the supervisor and one other professor chosen by the Graduate Program Director in consultation with the supervisor.Component(s):
Thesis ResearchNotes:
- The research thesis is graded accepted or rejected.
Description:
Students write and defend a thesis in the form of a 3-4 chapter monograph on a topic to be determined in consultation with a faculty member, who serves as a supervisor. The thesis is written under the guidance of a member of the Department. This form of master's thesis in philosophy is expected to synthesize and review previous results of scholarship and then make an original contribution to knowledge within that scholarly context. An oral defence of the thesis is required before an examining committee consisting of the supervisor and two other professors chosen by the Graduate Program Director in consultation with the thesis supervisor.Component(s):
Thesis ResearchNotes:
- The thesis is graded accepted or rejected.