2025-26 Graduate Courses

Fall 2025

Data, Decisions, and Dilemmas: The Ethics of Machine Learning (Area: MPL)
Instructor: Alice Huang

In this course, we explore three key ethical challenges in machine learning: fairness, privacy, and explainability. We will think about pressing questions such as: Do individuals have a right to explanations for algorithmic decisions? Do we have a right to be forgotten in the digital age? What does it mean for an algorithm to be fair, and how can fairness be measured? What are the risks of relying on machine predictions when their reasoning is opaque? How should we navigate the ethical tensions between protecting privacy and ensuring transparency in data-driven systems? And what does it mean to ‘own’ data about ourselves?

Philosophy of Scientific Experimentation (Area: Science)
Instructor: Jackie Sullivan

To be announced

History of Philosophy of Language (Area: History, MPL)
Instructor: Benjamin Hill, Rob Stainton

An introductory overview of key concepts and arguments in philosophy of language from a historical perspective. Students will not be expected to have a strong background in either contemporary philosophy of language or its history. Familiarity specifically with Ancient or Medieval philosophy would, however, be especially advantageous. Topics will range across metaphysics, foundational semantics and epistemology, and will likely include: the source of linguistic facts (e.g., conventional, natural or divine); the relationships between language and ontology (e.g., essences and existential commitment); truth, falsity and paradox; the ontological categories of linguistic contents (mental, concrete and abstract); varieties of meanings (e.g., of names, predicates and syncategoremata); language and communication (e.g., metaphor, rhetoric and the “defects” of ordinary languages). Texts this year will be drawn from the Ancient and Medieval period. (A future course will focus on philosophers from the Early Modern period and the 19th Century.) That said, connections between our focal Ancient and Medieval thinkers and later philosophers, up to the present day, will be drawn throughout the course.

Plato's Republic (Area: History)
Instructor: Devin Henry

To be announced

Proseminar (Area: History, M&L)
Instructor: Rob Stainton

The Proseminar is a survey of foundational and highly influential texts in Analytic Philosophy. Emphasis in Fall 2025 will be on four sub-topics, namely:Language and Philosophical Logic; Epistemology; Metaphysics (including Metaethics); and Metaphilosophy. The twin objectives are honing of philosophical skills and enriching students’ familiarity with some “touchstone” material in 20th Century Analytic philosophy. With respect to skills, the emphasis will be on: professional-level philosophical writing; close reading of notoriously challenging texts; methodological reflection; and respectful but incisive philosophical dialogue. The reading list has not been finalized yet, and it varies a little from year to year. However, we will likely study in depth works such as G.E.M. Anscombe's Intention, J.L. Austin's How to do Things with Words, S. Kripke'sNaming and Necessity, W. Sellars' Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mindand L. Wittgenstein's Blue and Brown Books.

Dennett (Area: Science, M&L)
Instructor: Chris Viger

To be announced

Winter 2026

Hume's Moral and Political Philosophy (Area: History)
Instructor: Dennis Klimchuk

A close look at the key elements and doctrines in Hume's moral and political philosophy.  Hume was a very systematic philosopher, so we will begin at the beginning, with his general account of (as he said) human nature.  We will also consider his famous sceptical account of causation.  We will then work through his distinctive treatments of series of topics in moral and political philosophy: free will and determinism, virtue, duties, conventions, justice, property, contracts, and political authority.  Most readings will be from his Treatise of Human Nature, but we will also read selections from both Enquiries and an essay or two.

Mental Representation (Area: M&L)
Instructor: Angela Mendelovici

Some mental states seem to represent or “say” something. For example, a perceptual experience of a cup on a table might represent that there is a cup on a table, and a belief that grass is green might represent the fact or proposition that grass is green. This is mental representation. This course examines the nature of this phenomenon. We will address questions such as the following:

  • What is a theory of mental representation a theory of?
  • What is the correct theory of mental representation?
  • Can mental representation be explained in terms of physical phenomena?
  • Does what a subject represents depend solely on how the subject is from the skin-in, or do environmental factors also play a role?
  • Is mental representation a relation to a represented content, and, if so, what kinds of things are contents? What is the relationship between mental representation and phenomenal consciousness, the subjective, qualitative, or felt aspect of mental life?
  • Can mental representation explain phenomenal consciousness? Can phenomenal consciousness explain mental representation?
  • How can we explain the internal structure of complex representational states? 

We will invite some of the authors of our readings to join us for a session each to discuss their work. This is an opportunity to get to know them personally and to hear about their ideas first-hand. Assessment for this course is based on weekly responses (pass/fail), a presentation (pass/fail), and your choice of either a final paper or a final exam.

Collective Responsibility/Obligation (Area: MPL, Feminism)
Instructor: Tracy Isaacs

A study of the evolution of philosophical scholarship about collective responsibility and collective obligation from post-World War II to today. The course will include consideration of how collective responsibility and obligation might interact with social justice issues (such as structural discrimination/oppression) and other contemporary issues of urgent political concern (such as climate change and historical injustice).

Issues in Philosophy, Psychology and Neuroscience (Area: Science, M&L)
Instructor: Mike Anderson

This course explores areas of common interest between philosophy, psychology and neuroscience, including: consciousness, computation, representation, modularity, memory, and embodiment, from both scientific and philosophical perspectives. We will also explore methodological issues, including the power and limitations of fMRI and other brain imaging technologies, and the structure of scientific inference.

Prospectus
Instructor: Rob Stainton

This course is for PhD students who have completed all other coursework requirements and are in a position to start working on their dissertation prospectus. The aim of the course is to facilitate and support the development of the prospectus.

Intimacy, Love, and Interpersonal Relationships (Area: MPL)
Instructor: Jasmine Gunkel

What is love and what does it demand of us? What is intimacy and how does it shape our lives and persons? Why do our interpersonal relationships matter so deeply to us? How can we act well in these relationships, and what can philosophy reveal about the ways in which we can act poorly? How might novel technologies change how we understand love, intimacy, and relationships? In this course, we’ll survey such questions and try to develop new answers to some of them. We’ll begin our explorations by looking at longstanding debates about the nature of love and friendship. We’ll then turn to emerging topics in the philosophy of interpersonal relationships, such as intimacy, abuse, parasocial relationships, stalking, online dating, polyamory, AI companions, and related topics of student interest.