Current Undergraduate Courses in Philosophy
PHIL 210 – Critical Thinking (note: this an online, eConcordia course)
Instructor: Jeremy Arnott
This course is an introduction to argumentation and reasoning. It focuses on the kinds of arguments one is likely to encounter in academic work, in the media, and in philosophical, social, and political debate. The course aims to improve students’ ability to advance arguments persuasively and their ability to respond critically to the arguments of others. Students will find the skills they gain in this course useful in virtually every area of study.
NOTE: Students who have received credit for PHIZ 210 or for this topic under a PHIZ 298 number may not take this course for credit.
PHIL 210 - Critical Thinking (note: this an online, eConcordia course)
Instructor: TBA
This course is an introduction to argumentation and reasoning. It focuses on the kinds of arguments one is likely to encounter in academic work, in the media, and in philosophical, social, and political debate. The course aims to improve students’ ability to advance arguments persuasively and their ability to respond critically to the arguments of others. Students will find the skills they gain in this course useful in virtually every area of study. NOTE: Students who have received credit for PHIZ 210 or under a PHIZ 298 number may not take this course for credit.
PHIL 214 - Deductive Logic
Instructor: Greg Lavers
This course presents the modern symbolic systems of sentential and predicate logic. Students transcribe English sentences into a logical form, analyze the concepts of logical truth, consistency, and validity, as well as learn to construct derivations in each system. NOTE: This course may not be taken for credit by students who have taken PHIL 212.
PHIL 232 - Introduction to Ethics
Instructor: Pablo Gilabert
Philosophical discussions of ethics have both practical significance (What should one do?) and theoretical interest (What does it mean to say “That’s the right thing to do”?). In this course, students are introduced to some representative approaches to ethical thought and action. General questions about the nature of ethical reasoning are also considered. For example: Are there objective ethical truths or are ethical judgments merely relative to social norms? An effort is made to incorporate those ethical issues which are of specific importance to contemporary society. NOTE: Students who have received credit for PHIZ 232 may not take this course for credit.
PHIL 235 - Biomedical Ethics (note: this an online, eConcordia course)
Instructor: Anna Brinkerhoff
This course is primarily concerned with contemporary biomedical debates, many of which are of current social and political significance: euthanasia and physician assisted suicide, patients’ rights, animal experimentation, organ donation and transplantation, palliative care, abortion, genetic engineering, and new reproductive technologies. NOTE: Students who have received credit for PHIZ 235 may not take this course for credit.
PHIL 236 - Environmental Ethics
Instructor: Matthias Fritsch
This course examines recent developments in ethical theories as they are applied to questions of environmental practices. Topics discussed may include the moral significance of nonhuman nature, duties to respond to climate change, economics and sustainable environmental protection, and environmental justice. NOTE: Students who have received credit for this topic under a PHIL 298 or 398 number may not take this course for credit.
PHIL 241 - Philosophy of Human Rights
Instructor: Katharina Nieswandt
This course investigates basic philosophical questions regarding human rights, such as their status between morality and law, their scope and the problem of relativism, the concept of human dignity, their relation to democracy, whether national or cosmopolitan, and the debate over the justifiability and feasibility of socio-economic rights as human rights. NOTE: Students who have received credit for this topic under a PHIL 298 number may not take this course for credit.
PHIL 260 - Presocratics and Plato
Instructor: Emily Perry
This course is a study of ancient Greek philosophy from its beginnings to Plato.
PHIL 263 - Introduction to Epistemology
Instructor: Murray Clarke
An introduction to the basic concepts and problems in epistemology, including belief, knowledge, scepticism, perception, and intentionality.
PHIL 266 - Introduction to Philosophy of Religion (note: this an online, eConcordia course)
Instructor: Nabeel Hamid
This course examines the nature of religion and spirituality, and their role in human experience. It addresses topics such as the existence of sacred reality; whether belief in the divine can be rational; the self, rebirth, and reincarnation; evil and divine justice; and religious pluralism. These topics are explored through a wide range of theistic and non-theistic religious traditions, including Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Daoism, and Indigenous religions.
PHIL 298 - Introductory Topics in Philosophy: Philosophy Through Film
Instructor: Matthew Barker
An introduction to philosophy through film and video.
PHIL 318 - Philosophy of Biology
Instructor: Matthew Barker
Prerequisite: Students must have completed three credits in Philosophy prior to enrolling. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required. This course examines a variety of philosophical issues in biology. Topics covered may include: fitness, function, units of selection, the nature of species, reductionism, biological explanation of human behaviour and the ethical and epistemological consequences of evolutionary theory.
PHIL 328 - Intermediate Philosophy of Science
Instructor: Murray Clarke
Prerequisite: Students must have completed three credits in Philosophy prior to enrolling. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required. This course provides an in-depth study of the nature of justification in science, theories of scientific explanation, the rationality of theory change, and debates concerning realism and antirealism.
PHIL 342 - Political Philosophy
Instructor: Pablo Gilabert
Prerequisite: Students must have completed three credits in Philosophy or Political Science prior to enrolling. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required. This course provides analyses of important political and philosophical concepts such as globalization, nationalism, power, multiculturalism, tolerance, liberty, equality, community, economic justice, and democracy.
PHIL 360 - Early Modern Philosophy I: 17th Century
Instructor: Nabeel Hamid
Prerequisite: Students must have completed 12 credits in Philosophy including PHIL 260 and PHIL 261 prior to enrolling. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required. This course is a study of central metaphysical, epistemological, and ethical themes in the work of authors such as Descartes, Hobbes, Cavendish, Spinoza, Conway, Malebranche, Locke, and Leibniz.
PHIL 440 – Advanced Political Philosophy: The Concept of the Political
Instructor: Katharina Nieswandt
Prerequisite: The following course must be completed previously: PHIL 241 or PHIL 342. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required. This course uses selected historical or contemporary writings in political philosophy to treat topics such as those of power, freedom, equality, distributive justice, law, and the boundaries of the political. This year’s seminar critically examines Carl Schmitt’s anti-liberal conception of sovereignty and democracy. Schmitt was an early supporter of fascism, but his legal theory continues to have profound influence across the political spectrum—shaping post-war constitutions and today inspiring the anti-colonial left. We shall read Schmitt’s The Concept of the Political (2nd, exp. ed.) and contextualising literature, from Hegel to Chantal Mouffe.
PHIL 464 - Advanced Studies in Epistemology: Ethics of Belief
Instructor: Anna Brinkerhoff
Prerequisite: 12 credits in Philosophy or permission of the Department. This course examines a cross-section of important epistemological issues, such as those about justification, evidence, reason, rationality, or knowledge. This particular seminar surveys classic and cutting-edge research in the quickly evolving literature on the ethics of belief in contemporary analytic epistemology. Very broadly, this literature focuses on whether—and how—various practical and moral considerations bear on what we ought to believe, and on the rationality of belief. We will explore the following topics: pragmatism vs. anti-pragmatism, moral and pragmatic encroachment on epistemic rationality, doxastic wrongs, doxastic partiality in friendship, promising against the evidence, the epistemology of prejudice, epistemic injustice, and the epistemic demands of #BelieveWomen.
PHIL 473 - Advanced Topics in Continental Philosophy: Heidegger, Deconstruction, and Marxism
Instructor: Matthias Fritsch
Prerequisite: Students must have completed 12 credits in Philosophy including PHIL 374 or PHIL 377 prior to enrolling. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required. In this year’s course we will trace a number of themes through the works of Marx, Heidegger, and Derrida: the critique of the maximization of value; the relationship between finitude and value; between theory and practice; and conceptions of time in modernity. We will read texts, among others, by Marx, Marcuse, Heidegger, Derrida, and Hägglund.
PHIL 482 - Advanced Topics in Ancient Philosophy: The Origin of the Will in Ancient Greco-Roman Philosophy
Instructor: Emily Perry
Prerequisite: The following courses must be completed previously: PHIL 260 and PHIL 261. This course traces the development of the concept of the will in Greco-Roman antiquity, drawing on texts ranging from Plato to the Patristics.
PHIL 486 – Hegel
Instructor: Emilia Angelova
Prerequisite: Students must have completed 12 credits in Philosophy prior to enrolling. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required. Conceived and written in the aftermath of the French Revolution, G. W.F. Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit (1807) is a ferment of a philosophical revolution in its own right. This is one of philosophy’s most important works and on it was founded the movement of German Idealism. Grasped from the vantage point of complete self-consciousness, this dialectic renders philosophy into a system that is both subjective and absolute. The Phenomenology is to appear to us, its readers, as the complete science of the recollected life of Desire, more decisively, the desire for self-actualization and the self’s objective recognition by the other, all of which are notions that underlie also current social, political and economic life. The achievements of self-conscious life and desire are many: art, religion, science and reason; enlightenment, culture and faith; morality, social life and forgiveness; ethics, law, absolute knowledge and instrumental reason.
This seminar is a close reading of Hegel’s text. We will make the very task of learning how to read this phenomenological text one of our goals. But we will conduct our study also as a critical reading: we will ask about implications and ideas that have inspired subsequent philosophical developments and as well have posed controversies involving Hegel’s contribution.
PHIL 487 – Origins of Analytic Philosophy: Frege
Instructor: Greg Lavers
Prerequisite: Students must have completed 12 credits in Philosophy prior to enrolling. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required. This course investigates selected philosophical problems and methodologies in the late‑19th‑ and early‑20th‑century traditions that developed into analytic philosophy.
PHIL 498 – Advanced Topics in Philosophy: Mind, Time and Nature
Instructor: David Morris
Prerequisite: Students must have completed 12 credits in Philosophy prior to enrolling. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required. This course focuses on time as central to the problem of the relation between mind and nature, through a study of Bergson’s Matter and Memory and Creative Evolution, and Whitehead’s The Concept of Nature. Bergson and Whitehead are philosophers who take up the sciences of their time to advance philosophy—but also challenge the ways that scientists tend to think about being, mind, and perception. They especially do this by emphasizing the central importance of time in philosophy and in nature. One occasion for this course is the publication of a new translation of Creative Evolution; another is renewed and ongoing interest in both Bergson and Whitehead.
PHIL 201 - Problems of Philosophy
Instructor: Ulf Hlobil
In this course, students are introduced to philosophical problems such as: What is the nature of reality? How does one know what is real, and how is it distinct from misleading appearances or illusion? What is knowledge? Does knowledge require certainty? How is knowledge distinct from belief? Are people free? That is to say, do they choose their actions or are their actions determined by causes beyond their control? If people are not free, then how can they be held responsible for their actions? Can God’s existence be proven? How is the mind related to the body, if at all? What is it to be a morally good person? NOTE: Students who have received credit for PHIZ 201 may not take this course for credit.
PHIL 220 - Introduction to the Philosophy of Science
Instructor: Matthew Barker
This course provides an introduction to the main problems in the philosophy of science. These include the structure of scientific theories, various models of scientific method and explanation, and the existence of unobservables. NOTE: Students who have received credit for INTE 250 or PHIL 228 may not take this course for credit.
PHIL 232 - Introduction to Ethics
Instructor: Katharina Nieswandt
Philosophical discussions of ethics have both practical significance (What should one do?) and theoretical interest (What does it mean to say “That’s the right thing to do”?). In this course, students are introduced to some representative approaches to ethical thought and action. General questions about the nature of ethical reasoning are also considered. For example: Are there objective ethical truths or are ethical judgments merely relative to social norms? An effort is made to incorporate those ethical issues which are of specific importance to contemporary society. NOTE: Students who have received credit for PHIZ 232 may not take this course for credit.
PHIL 235 - Biomedical Ethics (note: this an online, eConcordia course)
Instructor: Anna Brinkerhoff
This course is primarily concerned with contemporary biomedical debates, many of which are of current social and political significance: euthanasia and physician assisted suicide, patients’ rights, animal experimentation, organ donation and transplantation, palliative care, abortion, genetic engineering, and new reproductive technologies. NOTE: Students who have received credit for PHIZ 235 may not take this course for credit.
PHIL 261 - Aristotle and Hellenistic Philosophy
Instructor: Emily Perry
Prerequisite: The following course must be completed previously: PHIL 260. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required. This course is an introduction to Aristotle and the main lines of thought in Hellenistic philosophy, including Stoicism, Epicureanism and Scepticism.
PHIL 265 - Introduction to Metaphysics
Instructor: Murray Clarke
This course is an introduction to metaphysics and the attempt to understand a mind-independent reality. This involves distinguishing those aspects of reality that are dependent on the mind from those aspects that are independent of the mind. For example, are colours mind-independent properties? Are there universal values and if so, are they mind-independent? Is there a God, and if so, what must that God be like?
PHIL 266 - Introduction to Philosophy of Religion (note: this an online, eConcordia course)
Instructor: Nabeel Hamid
This course explores the nature of religion and spirituality, and their role in human experience. It addresses topics such as the existence of sacred reality; whether belief in the divine can be rational; the self, rebirth, and reincarnation; evil and divine justice; and religious pluralism. These topics are explored through a wide range of theistic and non-theistic religious traditions, including Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Daoism, and Indigenous religions.
PHIL 275 – From Modern to Postmodern: Philosophical Thought and Cultural Critique
Instructor: TBA
This course focuses on key developments in modern and postmodern philosophy and their cultural influences. The course provides an introduction to philosophers (such as Kant, Nietzsche, and Foucault) and philosophical movements (such as empiricism, existentialism, and post‑structuralism) of the modern era. It also introduces students to the tremendous influence that philosophical theory has had on the arts, on social and political movements, and on virtually every field of study in the humanities and social sciences.
PHIL 298 – Introductory Topics in Philosophy: Happiness and Well-Being
Instructor: Anna Brinkerhoff
Happiness matters--we all want to be happy. But what, exactly, is happiness? Is it a state of mind? An emotion? Or something else? And what’s so good about being happy, anyway? To what extent does happiness contribute to well-being?
PHIL 352 - Philosophy of History
Instructor: Matthias Fritsch
Prerequisite: Students must have completed three credits in History or Philosophy prior to enrolling. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required.An analysis of the nature of historical knowledge and explanation is followed by a study of classical and contemporary attempts to elucidate the meaning of history. Authors may include Augustine, Vico, Kant, Hegel, Marx, Spengler, Popper, Toynbee, Arendt.
PHIL 361 - Early Modern Philosophy II: 18th Century
Instructor: TBA
Prerequisite: Students must have completed 12 credits in Philosophy including PHIL 260 and PHIL 261 to enrolling. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required. This course is a study of central metaphysical, epistemological, and ethical themes in the work of authors such as Locke, Leibniz, Astell, Masham, Wolff, Berkeley, du Châtelet, Hume, Reid, and Kant.
PHIL 374 - Kant and 19th Century Philosophy
Instructor: Emilia Angelova
Prerequisite: Students must have completed six credits in Philosophy prior to enrolling. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required. This course examines Kant and some of the main currents of post‑Kantian philosophy, possibly including Hegel and post‑Hegelians, the romantic reaction, positivism, and pragmatism.
PHIL 377 - 20th Century Continental Philosophy
Instructor: Matthias Fritsch
Prerequisite: Students must have completed six credits in Philosophy prior to enrolling. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required. This course examines 20th-century French and German philosophy. Philosophers examined may include Husserl, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Foucault, Derrida, and Habermas.
PHIL 387 - Existentialism
Instructor: David Morris
This course acquaints the student with the fundamentals of the existentialist movement as a philosophical perspective. Philosophers considered may include Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, Jaspers, Marcel, and Berdyaev.
PHIL 420 – Advanced Philosophy of Science: Science and Values
Instructor: Matthew Barker
Prerequisite: Students must have completed 12 credits in Philosophy prior to enrolling. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required. What roles do values play in science? Are there roles they must play? Which roles should values play in science, and which shouldn’t they play? These questions are centuries old, but work on them in philosophy of science has intensified in recent years. We’ll read, write, and have group discussions about some of the resulting papers and books, as we address the above questions ourselves. Example topics include how social values should influence choice of research questions in science, which epistemic values should influence evidential reasoning, how moral and political values should bear upon applications of scientific findings, and how values should influence where the boundaries of scientific categories are drawn.
PHIL 429 – Values and Biotechnology
Instructor: Katharina Nieswandt
Prerequisite: Students must have completed 12 credits in Philosophy including PHIL 232 or PHIL 233 or PHIL 235 or PHIL 318 or PHIL 330 or PHIL 441 prior to enrolling. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required.This course examines normative issues around genetic engineering or other biotechnologies, including moral, metaphysical, epistemic or political questions. This year's seminar addresses questions such as: “What is a disability, and should we genetically engineer human beings not to have any?” and “Are genetically modified plants a good remedy for global hunger?” Readings range from applied ethics to philosophy of science.
PHIL 430 – Advanced Studies in Ethics: Philosophy of Work
Instructor: Pablo Gilabert
Prerequisite: The following course must be completed previously: PHIL 232 or PHIL 330. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required. This seminar will be devoted to a sustained examination of recent debates in ethics and political philosophy about well-being and social justice at work. Questions addressed include the following: What is work? What makes work desirable and what makes it undesirable? How can we organize working activities so that they are more conducive to well-being and aligned with social justice? These questions are not only of theoretical interest. They are also practically important. Many people spend half of their waking hours working, and our society pressures us into work on pain of severe poverty or social shame. We will likely discuss works by Kwame Appiah, Chris Bousquet, Michael Cholbi, John Danaher, Jean-Philippe Deranty, Jon Elster, Raymond Geuss, Anca Gheaus, Pablo Gilabert, Alex Gourevitch, Lisa Herzog, Axel Honneth, Rahel Jaeggi, Jan Kandiyali, David Leopold, Tom O’Shea, Tom Parr, Jahel Queralt, Julie Rose, Willemn Van der Deijl, Nicholas Vrousalis, and Erik Wright.
PHIL 463 – Current Research in Epistemology: Naturalized and Experimental Epistemology
Instructor: Murray Clarke
Prerequisite: Students must have completed 12 credits in Philosophy including PHIL 263 or PHIL 265 or PHIL 364 or PHIL 365 prior to enrolling. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required.The focus of this course will be to examine recent results from naturalized and experimental epistemology. Defenders of these movements include Quine, Stich, Kornblith and Machery. Critics include Jennifer Nagel, Ernest Sosa and others. Arguments and evidence on all sides of these debates will be closely evaluated.
PHIL 483/B – Advanced Topics in the History of Philosophy: Leibniz
Instructor: Nabeel Hamid
Prerequisite: Students must have completed 12 credits in Philosophy prior to enrolling. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required. This course will be an intensive study of the philosophy of the 17th/18th-Century German polymath, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. We will focus on his influential positions on topics in metaphysics and epistemology, such as substance, force, and modality, as well as his distinctive version of idealism.
PHIL 483/C – Advanced Topics in the History of Philosophy: Medieval Philosophy
Instructor: Ulf Hlobil
Prerequisite: Students must have completed 12 credits in Philosophy prior to enrolling. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required. This particular course will focus on medieval ethical theories. We will read Abelard, Aquinas, and other authors.