Course offerings

Summer 2014 course offerings

For meeting times and places, please visit WebAdvisor. For program requirements and generic course descriptions see the Undergraduate Calendar.

PHIL 2070 DE Philosophy of the Environment Professor N. Evans

Environmental Philosophy asks questions such as: How has 'nature' been conceptualized in the Western philosophical tradition, in aesthetics, science, and ethics? What arguments have been offered for the view that humans are superior among creatures? What connections might there be between the ways that nature, humankind, and animals have been conceptualized and the ways that humans have tended to act toward the non-human natural environment? This course may cover such topics as: climate change, resource extration and justice, biotechnology, obligations to future generations, risk assessment and discount rates, species lost, conservation vs. preservation.

Fall 2014 Course Offerings

PHIL 1000 01 Intro Phil: Major Texts Professor K. Dorter

An introduction to philosophical questions and ways of dealing with them. Our primary reading will be Plato’s Republic but we will also discuss David Hume’s Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, and Jean-Paul Sartre’s “Existentialism is a Humanism”.

PHIL 1000 02 Intro Phil: Major Texts Professor P. Sheridan

This course will examine some of the most important and enduring thinkers in the history of Western philosophy. Although philosophers have grappled with a wide range of issues, this course will concentrate on two of the most fundamental questions that have concerned Western philosophers: What is real? and, How do humans have knowledge of reality? The questions concerning the nature of reality are a branch of philosophy called metaphysics, and questions about human knowledge are a branch of philosophy called epistemology. Some of the questions that follow from these fundamental issues are: is there a world outside the mind, what can humans know about the world, is there a distinction between the appearance of things and reality itself, what does our experience of the world tell us about what exists independently of human experience. The answers philosophers have given to these questions have shapes not only modern science, but modern conceptions of self.

PHIL 1010 01 Intro Phil: Social & Political Issues Professor TBA

This course introduces philosophy through an examination of important issues in politics and society, such as punishment, animal rights, discrimination, war and violence, equality and property. These issues may be introduced through contemporary or historical philosophical writings.

PHIL 1010 02 Intro Phil: Social & Political Issues Professor TBA

This course introduces a philosophy through an examination of important issues in politics and society, such as punishment, animal rights, discrimination, war and violence, equality and property. These issues may be introduces through contemporary or historical philosophical writings.

PHIL*1050 01 Intro Phil: Basic Problems Professor J. Hacker-Wright

This course introduces students to philosophy through the exploration of basic perennial philosophical problems and questions, such as whether there is free will, a God, objective right and wrong, genuine knowledge of the world, and other topics. The readings for the course will consist primarily of 20th century philosophical writing.

PHIL*1050 02 Intro Phil: Basic Problems Professor A. Wayne

PHIL 2030 01 Philosophy of Medicine Professor M. Goldenberg

Medicine is a philosophical, not merely a practical, empirical enterprise. This course covers philosophical concepts which are widely used to evaluate health and health-practices include: autonomy, consent, mind, will, rights, harm, fairness, dignity, truth, and even ‘health’ itself. Issues central to health and health care practice include: the nature of professional-client relationships, genetic counseling, passive and active euthanasia, pharmacology and behaviour modification, resource allocation, and the special set of issues raised by reproductive technologies.

PHIL2070 DE Philosophy of the Environment Professor TBA

Enrivonmental Philosophy asks questions such as: How has 'nature' been conceptualized in the Western philsophical tradition, in aesthetics, science, and ethics? What arguments have been offered for the view that humans are superior among creatures? What connections might there be between the ways that nature, humankind, and animals have been conceptualized and the ways that humans have tended to act toward the non-human natural environment? This course may cover such topics as: climate change, resource extraction and justice, biotechnology, obligations to future generations, risk assessment and discount rates, species lost, conservation vs. preservation.

PHIL 2100 Critical Thinkiing Professor C. Sawkins

This course is designed to develop clarity of thought and method in analysis and construction of arguments. By contrast to PHIL*2110, the emphasis here is upon informal principles of critical thinking and arguments stated in terms of ordinary language. Topics include the nature and method of arguing, classification, definition and fallacies.

PHIL 2120 01 Ethics Professor TBA

Philosophical ethics is the attempt to systematize, explain, and justify the standards by which we evaluate our conduct as persons. The course may include treatment of controversial ethical issues such as abortion, euthanasia, war, and the treatment of animals and will cover many of the following questions: can we expect to find a single, universal code of ethics that applies to all human beings, or do such codes vary for each society or even for each individual? What are the roles of reason and emotion in ethics? Is morality grounded on a principle, and if so, what is it? Are there any traits of character that one must have to be a good person? Given that traditional ethical codes have been almost universally sexist, how must ethics be refashioned in order for women to achieve equal recognition?

PHIL 2120 02 Ethics Professor O. Payrow Shabni

Philosophical ethics is the attempt to systematize, explain, and justify the standards by which we evaluate our conduct as persons. The course may include treatment of controversial ethical issues such as abortion, euthanasia, war, and the treatment of aniamls and will cover many of the following questions: can we expect to find a single, universal code of ethics that applies to all human beings, or do such codes vary for each society or even each individual? What are the roles of reason and emotion in ethics? Is morality grounded on a principle, and if so, what is it? Are there any traits of character that one must have to be a good person? Given that traditional ethical codes have been almost universally sexist, how must ethics be refashioned in order for women to achieve equal recognition?

PHIL 2140 History of Greek & Roman Philosophy Professor J. Russon

A survey of the beginnings of Western philosophy, this course will focus on themes such as the nature of reality, the ways we might come to have knowledge, and the good life for human beings. This course will typically consider such thinkers as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Epictetus, Cicero and Seneca, although the specific course content will vary with the instructor.

PHIL 2180 Philosophy of Science Professor K. Freedman

As a system of knowledge pursuit, science develops laws and theories to explain, predict, understand, and control empirical phenomena. This course introduces students to many of the challenging assumptions, foundations, and implications of science. Topics include the nature of scientific knowledge, the structure of scientific theories, the distinction between science and pseudo-science, whether there is a scientific method, and how social and political processes influence the way science develops.

PHIL 2250 Knowledge, Mind & Language Professor A. Bailey

This course is an introduction to the nature and possibility of knowledge, in connection with the nature of mind and the role of language in shaping experience. This is a central area of philosophy.

PHIL 2600 DE Business Ethics Professor TBA

This course examines ethical and evaluative issues relating to business and professional practives, and is intended for students registered in a science or professional program, but without a background in philosophy. Topics to be explored include the nature of values and ethical systems, duties and rights, private and public goods, the consumer movement, social marketing, corporate social accounting, private right and professional responsibility.

PHIL 3040 Philosophy of Law Professor O. Payrow Shabani

This course is an introduction to the main topics in the philosophy of law. It aims to give students a philosophical grounding in such issues as the purpose and nature of law, the relationship between law and individual freedom and the question of international law. Thinkers studied may include St. Thomas Aquinas, John Stuart Mill, and H.L.A. Hart. The course may also include an examination of the way in which controversial ethical and social issues are treated under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

PHIL 3080 History of Modern Philosophy from Kant Professor B. Ables

A survey of European philosophy from Immanuel Kant (mid-18^th century) to the late 19^th century.

PHIL 3130 Contemporary British & American Philosophy Professor A. Bailey

Ludwig Wittgenstein and other Vienna philosophers of the early 20^th century believed that much of traditional philosophy was meaningless word-play, and that the reason many people didn’t see this is that it’[s difficult to distinguish the meaningless from the meaningful. Their attempts to do so – taking what Richard Rorty called “the linguistic turn” – shaped much of the 20^th century philosophy in English-speaking countries. This course will critically examine the original movement, some attempts to apply its ideas in various areas such as epistemology, ethics and philosophy of mind, and some ideas that arose in reaction to the original movement, e.g., so-called “ordinary language philosophy”, neopragmatism and naturalized philosophy.

PHIL 3200 Contemporary European Philosophy Professor J. Lampert

A survey of philosophical movements mainly centered in continental Europe from the late 19^th century to the present.

PHIL 3250 Philosophy of Language Professor M. McCullagh

This course is an introduction to contemporary philosophy of language. One of the driving questions in this field is, How do words connect with things in the world? One early answer to this was given by Bertrand Russell and was based on his view that we can think about a thing only if we are either directly acquainted with it or we can frame a desription that picks it out. On his view almost all of what we think about is by description, so he had a theory of how descriptions work, which was the central part of his story about how language in general works. That theory, and its applications, have been behind many of the great controversies in 20^th century philosophy of language, and we will pursue several of those debates. In addition we will look at ways in which philosophers have come up with theories about how the strictly literal meaning of a statement is supplemented. Grice’s theory of “conversational implicature” is the starting point for that topic. Other questions include whether a word has a “sense” in addition to having a “reference,” and the degree to which compositionality—the recombinability of words to make new sentences—accords with different accounts of how words and sentences get their meanings.

PHIL 3280 21st Century Philosophy Professor K. Freedman

This course is an introduction to the most current philosophical texts and movements developed since the beginning of the 21^st Century. Students will be taught to understand and work creatively with the most recent ideas in the discipline. Materials covered will focus almost exclusively on the philosophical texts written in or after the year 2000.

PHIL 350 Selected Topics in Philosophy II Professor P. Sheridan

Social contract theory is an early expression of what is now referred to as contractiarianism, a view according to which the legitimacy of political systems rests upon a mutual agreement amongst free, rational and equal people. A defining feature of early contractarianism is the belief that human beings are motivated, in some degree, by self-interest. Another defining feature is the characterization of the “state of nature” – a world without justice (and in some cases without any system of morality). Humans are driven to contractual agreement with others to escape an otherwise overly competitive or untenable situation. Humans cede decision-making power to the authority of government as a result of enlightened self-interest: we benefit, on balance, from cooperation with others.
This theory of political authority provides the basis for modern liberal systems of government. Without the works of such thinkers as Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Jean Jacques Rousseau, modern systems of government may well look very different and the perception of the relationship between the interests of individuals and that of the state would likely be radically different.
In studying these early thinkers, we can come to appreciate the fundamental assumptions that drove the rise of modern Western governments. We are also driven to consider the nature of human motivation, the role of moral rules and rules of justice in state legislation, as well as to reflect upon the ways in which governmental structures shape our individual sense of rights, responsibilities and social duties.

PHIL 3410 Major Texts in Philosophy Professor K. Wendling

This course will consider central and continuing philosophical issues through an exploration of primary texts in the history of philosophy. The readings and periods stressed will vary from year to year, but could cover significant and enduring texts from the ancient period right up to the 21^st century.

PHIL 3910 Indian Philosophy Professor K. Dorter

A survey of Indian philosophy centered on a detailed examination in class of four Upanishads (Isha, Katha, Mandukya, and Chandogya), the Bhagavad Gita, and Buddhism (the Dhammapada, Nagarjuna’s Mula-madhyamika-karika, and Vasubandu’s Trimshika).

PHIL 4160 Philosophy Field Course Professor D. Dedrick

This variable content course addresses an issue which is relevant to the contemporary world from a range of philosophical perspectives. The course is built on research onto the issue, including material gathered during a 1-2 week field trip which is held in the summer immediately preceding the semester in which the student takes the course. The field trip is a mandatory component of the course, one for which the student assumes the cost of transportation, food and lodging.

PHIL*4310 Applied Ethics Professor TBA

An advanced study of specific problems in applied ethics. This is an intensive course designed for philosophy majors as well as for seventh and eight semester students who have had no previous philosophy course.

PHIL 4400 Major Texts in Philosophy Professor C. Storfa

Advanced study of a major text in philosophy not treated in either PHIL*4410 or PHIL*4420.

PHIL 4410 Major Texts in Philosophy Professor P. Eardley

Advanced study of a major text in philosophy not treated in either PHIL*4400 or PHIL*4420.

PHIL 4550 Philosophy Honours Workshop Professor K. Wendling

This course trains upper level students in advanced methods of philosophical analysis. Through a workshop format, students will hone their creative and critical skills. Students will learn to analyze and make use of such methods as phenomenology and dialectics, hermeneutics and deconstruction, analytic philosophy and the use of formal logic in conceptual analysis, as well as other methods (including classical methods of philosophy). Editing and peer-reviewing skills will also be developed. Student projects include long and short written assignments, and various formats of oral presentation. This course is especially recommended for students planning to pursue graduate studies in Philosophy.

PHIL 6200 Problems of Contemporary Philosophy Professor D. Dedrick

A study of a particular set of problems in contemporary philosophy.

PHIL 6230 Ethics Professor J. Hacker-Wright

This course will provide an advanced introduction to Aristotelian ethics through an historical examination of key texts on the topic of practical wisdom. For Aristotelians, practical wisdom is a central virtue that consists in reasoning well about how to act. Practical wisdom depends on the possession of moral virtues (e.g., courage, temperance, and justice) and is essential to full moral virtue.
We will look at writings by Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, and contemporary Aristotelian ethicists (e.g., Julia Annas, Rosalind Hursthouse). Central readings will include Book VI of the Nicomachean Ethics and Summa Theologiae IIaIIae Q. 47-56 (De Prudentia).

PHIL 6950 MA Seminar Professor J. Lampert

A seminar course in which students work on developing a range of academic skills for doing professional philosophy. This course is a pass/fail and is mandatory for all incoming MA students.

PHIL 6960 PhD Graduate Seminar Professor P. Eardley

A seminar course in which students work on developing a range of academic skills for doing professional philosophy. This course is a pass/fail and is mandatory for all second year PhD students.