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A look at some central questions in philosophy, including: Does God exist? What is knowledge? Truth? How do we distinguish between right and wrong?  What justifies political authority? Does morality ever permit or require us to break the law? Specific topics will include: race and racism, fake news, and the justification and limits of rights in property.  Examples and case studies will be drawn from a wide range of disciplines and areas, from the natural and social sciences to art and music.

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In our everyday experiences, we are confronted by situations in which we have to decide what is right, and what is wrong. Broadly, we can think of these as ethical “moments”, where we have to make a certain kind of judgment: normative or moral judgment. We ask: what is morally permissible in these circumstances? What is morally obligatory? What is forbidden? The answers that we give are important – they will guide our actions, or we may use them to evaluate the actions of others. Either way, they will determine what counts as a right action, or who is a good person.

Politics and law sometimes generate very similar experiences – we ask ourselves whether an action is legal or illegal, which tax or environmental policy is the best for the country, whether the government has done something to violate our rights, and so on. There are many instances where ethics, law and politics intersect.

An introduction to the basic principles of reasoning and critical thinking designed to enhance the student's ability to evaluate various forms of reasoning found in everyday life as well as in academic disciplines. The course will deal with such topics as inductive and deductive reasoning, the nature and function of definitions, types of fallacies, the use and misuse of statistics, and the rudiments of logic. Primarily for first year students.

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An introduction to the basic principles of reasoning and critical thinking designed to enhance the student's ability to evaluate various forms of reasoning found in everyday life as well as in academic disciplines. The course will deal with such topics as inductive and deductive reasoning, the nature and function of definitions, types of fallacies, the use and misuse of statistics, and the rudiments of logic. Primarily for first year students.

Antirequisite(s): , .

This is an introductory course in formal logic, which may be used to satisfy the logic requirement for the HSP module in Philosophy. The focus of the course is on Modern Symbolic Logic. The first term focuses solely on propositional or sentential logic; the second term is dedicated to first-order predicate logic. A system of natural deduction is introduced for proving statements and assessing natural language arguments. A formal language is introduced along with techniques for translating between this formal system and natural language. Truth tables are used to test for truth-functional properties. A more efficient system of truth trees is then introduced to test for these properties. Time permitting the course will conclude with a brief introduction to modal and other alternative logics.

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An examination of several key issues arising out of the present environmental crisis. Sample topics include: to what extent the environmental crisis is a scientific, religious, or ethical problem; the Gaia hypothesis; deep and shallow ecology; the land ethic; ecofeminism; the environment and economics; and sustainable development.

An examination of philosophical approaches to understanding relationships of power, privilege, and oppression. Material will include work in feminist philosophy, critical race theory, and/or postcolonial theory. There will be discussion of forms of oppression along the lines of gender, race, class, disability, and sexuality, with a focus on intersectional analyses.

A study of philosophical approaches to evil through the history of ÉîÒ¹¸£ÀûÕ¾ philosophy. We will consider evil as a theological problem (i.e., the problem of evil), the metaphysical character of evil (i.e, what is it?), and philosophical responses to the fact of evil and suffering, especially pessimism (the view that this is the “worst of all possible worlds”).

This course is focused on understanding and engaging the arguments that scholars have made about death. The specific arguments we consider attempt to answer the following questions: What does it mean to say that a person is dead? What, if anything, survives beyond death? Is death bad? Conversely, is immortality good? Are there any circumstances in which it is morally permissible to bring about the death of another and if so, why?

It is sometimes said that the phrase “business ethics” is an oxymoron. In this course we will attempt to dispel this popular conception. By working our way through many of the moral issues to which the practice of business gives rise, we will show that the interests of business people and moral philosophers converge. Topics include: What is the relation between business and free market capitalism? What is the nature of moral reasoning? Do corporations have social responsibilities? What social responsibilities do corporations have when operating in the global context? Are there universal ethical principles which can guide the conduct of multinational corporations? Do international sweatshops violate human rights? Can the capitalist market economy be justified? What constitutes a just distribution of the goods and services produced by society? Is affirmative action morally justified? How much information about a product is a corporation morally obligated to disclose to consumers, and how and to whom should this information be disclosed? Is business bluffing ethical? When is advertising ethically questionable? What rights and obligations do employees and employers have in the workplace? Do employees have the right to know of work-related safety hazards? Is whistle-blowing morally justified?

We spend a considerable portion of our lives in the digital world. What moral considerations ought to guide our conduct as cyber-citizens, given the possibility that online behaviour is morally distinct from real world behaviour? This class will engage materials that address the philosophical issues raised by these two questions: Specifically: What’s the relationship between our virtual identities and our physical identities? How is online activity changing our interpersonal relationships? What are our rights and responsibilities toward others in the cyberworld? How do we trade between the potentially conflicting values of anonymity and accountability? How do we balance copyright claims against demands for open access? Is piracy always wrong? Does a hacker’s code of ethics make any sense? How should we respond to forms of hate and exclusion in online communities?

We will study the fundamental concepts of law, and the philosophical principles on which they are based. The course is divided into four sections, two each term, as follows: the first term will be spent on tort law and contract law; the second term criminal law and constitutional law. There will also be an introduction to the basic structure of our court system, the difference between statute law and common law, and some basic knowledge of the legal process.

In the study of tort law the main focus will be on the law of negligence, including the expanding areas of liability of product manufacturers, tavern owners, and other public ‑ private entities. We will be reading an essay describing the difference between American and Canadian approaches to tort law, and illustrating themes that are ever present in the law's development.

In the study of contract law, the student will gain an understanding of the basics of contract law by looking at pivotal cases, and applying the principles found in those cases in various other situations. Again, a philosophical essay will lead the way to conceptual underpinnings of contract law.

For criminal law, the questions of culpability, intention, and available defences are considered.

Finally, constitutional law will be studied with the main focus on the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and litigation based on that legislation.

While there is no claim that the student will gain knowledge of the most current state of the law, there will be an effort to consider current events and controversial issues that are topical during the study of the course.

In addition, and in conjunction with the cases studied, will be a discussion of the philosophical principles that underlie, justify and inform the law. Controversial areas of the law will be discussed including such topics as the independence of the courts from political influence, freedom of speech, pornography, the tension between legal obligations to accused persons and the rights of victims of crime etc.

A philosophical reflection on food and our current food system. Issues may include food and climate change, food justice, local and global hunger and food insecurity, the industrialization of food and agriculture, the moral and political dimensions of genetically modified food, or the treatment of animals and lab cultured meat.

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This course will provide students with an introduction to the questions confronted by the main figures of Ancient Greek philosophy (Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and the Hellenistic Philosophers). We shall examine such questions as: What is philosophy and how should it be practiced? What is the underlying nature of reality? Is the fundamental state of the universe motion or stability? Is knowledge possible? If so, how do we acquire it? Can we have knowledge of a changing world or does knowledge require eternal, unchanging objects (e.g. Plato’s Forms)? What is the nature of happiness and how does one attain it? How many kinds of friendship are there? Is friendship necessary for happiness?

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A critical examination of key works of selected figures of the 17th and 18th centuries.

A survey of contemporary and historical philosophical works on language. Topics may include: What is a language? How are language and thought related? Does linguistic meaning come from the world, communicative activity, or the mind? Authors may include , among others: Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Frege, Russell, Wittgenstein, Austin, Grice and Chomsky.

A discussion of conceptual problems which fall between science and philosophy, as well as broader epistemological issues concerning theory change and the concept of progress in science.

An historical introduction to the Philosophy of Biology examining the development of evolutionary theory from Aristotle to Darwin and the ways in which past ideas have helped shape contemporary debates (e.g. species concepts, adaptation, levels of selection).  is recommended background for those interested in .

This course explores philosophical issues related to climate change, including problems of knowledge in climate science; making choices when outcomes are deeply uncertain; international justice in climate policy; weighing harms to future generations and to non-human nature; the moral significance of risk of human extinction; and revision of cultural values.

Controversies about the moral status of animals, embryos and PVS patients, not to mention the possibility of life beyond the grave, often trace back to a more fundamental controversy in the philosophy of mind: What are minds? This course is about this latter controversy. UNIT 1 begins by discussing two strikingly different pictures of the human mind that go back to the ancient world, viz., materialism and dualism. It then explores how these views were modified and contested in early modern Europe. UNIT 2 examines some more recent, i.e., 20th century, theories of mind and some difficulties they have faced (mostly having to do with pain, zombies, colours and/or bats). UNIT 3 surveys a variety of contemporary topics, including AI, simulated worlds and extended cognition.

All areas of philosophy, and of human knowledge in general, depend on assumptions about the nature of knowledge: assumptions about how we come to know what we know, what we can know about the world, and how we come to trust the knowledge claims of other people as well as our own. The theory of knowledge thus has metaphysical, psychological, and social dimensions as well as directly epistemological ones. This course considers some of the most important problems in the theory of knowledge, from a selection of classical and contemporary viewpoints. In this way we will gain some insight into the origins, motivations, and evolution of these problems as well as their implications for contemporary thought. Topics will include the nature of perception, the relation between sense and reason, scepticism and certainty, trust in the testimony others, deductive and non-deductive inference, and the role of a priori principles in our common sense and scientific knowledge. Although there are no formal prerequisites, some prior familiarity with philosophical texts will be assumed.

This course focuses on five philosophers of the existentialist movement, including Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre and de Beauvoiur. A variety of themes will be investigated; most importantly, why these philosophers call into question the traditional view of the subject as detached from the world in a relation that is epistemic, and how, in doing so, they emphasize our existence as living individuals, that is, as always already situated in a world and as open to future possibilities. These two aspects come together in the idea that human existence involves having to create meaning out of the conditions in which we find ourselves—thus giving rise to related themes including: alienation, authenticity, freedom, and being with others. Accordingly, our investigation will include questions such as: What is our relation to the world and how does the world take on meaning in our everyday lives? What is freedom? To what extent is our freedom shaped by the world and others? What might it mean to live authentically? Who is the other and what role do others play in our lives?

We will begin the course with Shahab Ahmed’s magnum opus, “What is Islam?” and try to wrestle with this question. This might seem like an easy question to answer, but how can we apply the term to cultures as diverse as Moroccan to Malaysian: is it the Qur’an? No alcohol? Prohibition on homosexuality? etc. Ahmed shows for all of these examples, practices in Islam that don’t connect to the Qur’an, Islamic practices that involve wine and Islamic practices that refer to homosexuality. We then move to explore Imran Aijaz’s work on analytical philosophical problems in Islam. Then we look to the work of Talal Asad and his legacy to think about the relationship of Islam to secularism and if secularism’s Enlightenment narrative of historical progress toward being less religious really is as progressive as it is assumed in the West. Next, we look at feminism in Islam. We start with a small unit on how Muslim feminists have thought through what are considered sexist parts of the Qur’an. We will read Amina Wadud, Aysha Hidayatullah and Fatema Amijee on this. We conclude this course with a reading that ties these last two units together with Talal Asad’s most famous student, the feminist Saba Mahmood. We read her book “The Politics of Piety” to think through her critique of ÉîÒ¹¸£ÀûÕ¾ feminist assumptions by using ethnographic work on the Egyptian women’s dawa movement. Just as Islam might have something to learn from feminism, it might also be the case that feminism has something to learn from Islam. There is no expectation of knowing Arabic as a prerequisite to be able to take this course.

This course introduces students to the attempts by scholars to understand whether, and the degree to which, humans can/should be held responsible for their actions. Do humans have ethical duties and responsibilities toward one another or themselves? If so, what are the foundations of those ethical duties, and what do they demand? Our survey of the scholarly responses to these questions will be separated in two parts: First a review of prominent positions on meta-ethics, followed by a survey of the five dominant ethical theories.

Antirequisite(s): Governance, Leadership and Ethics 2002F/G.

This course is an introduction to various political and ethical issues that arise when considering the function and practice of the media. These include: What is ethical theory and what are the duties and responsibilities of those engaged in disseminating information? What is the relation between the media and the market? Is the news a mere commodity? Is the mass media a “propaganda machine” representing the commercial interests of the property class? Or, is the media an instrument of democracy, a “fourth estate” fostering the pursuit of truth and objectivity? What are the foundations and limits of freedom of the press in a liberal society? What is the role of the media in the formation of social, civic and moral space? Do we live in a post-truth world and how is this related to the phenomenon of fake news? What might it mean to say that our experiences are mediated and how in a globalized world do such mediations construct and make possible the appearance of distant others? What risks and promises do these mediations pose for the other? What, for instance, is the connection between the media and political violence or between the media and minorities? What role can the media play in the construction of a just moral order? Should journalists be considered professionals, and how have new communication technologies shaped the practice of journalism?

The course introduces students to some of the major philosophical perspectives that continue to inform contemporary social and political thought. With automation of jobs as a threat on the horizon as well as the loss of the idea of work as a vocation or as a career, how should we think of work? One answer we will focus on will be the idea of the Universal Basic Income. We then switch to the contemporary crises in democracy. I put crises in plural because there are multiple worries that voters are gravely uninformed but also systematically misinformed as well as polarized. There is also the problem that elites and the rich are actually in control. For our final unit, after setting up the problem, we will look at new solutions to many of these problems from so called “lottocratic” solutions, voter restrictions as well as dispersing power away from elites. 

An introduction to the philosophy of law. Topics typically covered include responsibility and punishment, freedom of expression, the constitutional protection of fundamental freedoms, and jurisprudence (the study of the question, "What is law"?)

An intermediate survey of the works of Plato. While some themes or works may be focused on to the exclusion of others, this course aims to give students a strong, foundational understanding of Plato's thought on a range of topics.

Prerequisite(s): At least 60% in 1.0 Philosophy course at the 2000-2999 level, or permission of the department.

An intermediate survey of the works of Aristotle. While some themes or works may be focused on to the exclusion of others, this course aims to give students a strong, foundational understanding of Aristotle's thought on a range of topics.

Prerequisite(s): At least 60% in 1.0 Philosophy course at the 2000-2999 level, or permission of the department.

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This course is an introduction to the philosophical contributions of women to 17th and 18th Century philosophy. What were their philosophical concerns? How did they influence the course of philosophy during this period? How were their contributions received by their contemporaries and how are they viewed today?

Prerequisite(s): At least 60% in 1.0 Philosophy course at the 2000-2999 level, or permission of the department.

This course is a comprehensive examination of one of Plato’s most famous dialogues, the Republic. The ostensible question of the Republic is, ‘What is Justice?’ But the Republic deals with a whole host of philosophical issues, ranging from tough ethical questions (Why should I be moral?), to metaphysical questions about the nature of reality (Can we trust our senses?), to questions about education (Should the State be in the business of moral development?), to asthetic questions (What grounds our judgements about beauty?). This course is suited to all students, both philosophy ma-jors and students from other disciplines, whether this is your first journey through the Republic or whether you have travelled this road before.

Prerequisite(s): At least 60% in 1.0 Philosophy course at the 2000-2999 level, or permission of the department.

The course is divided in six parts, following the required text. It begins with a historical overview of the philosophy of psychology to introduce the student to the issues. The second part of the course is methodological, investigating the nature of psychological explanation. Part three considers the role of representation in cognition and problems about how representations fit within a scientific world-view. Part four connects psychological concepts to their biological basis and raises issues about how psychology and neuroscience are related. Part five covers issues about perception and experience. The final section addresses issues of personhood and how the notion of a self fits together with the various processes considered in earlier sections.

Prerequisite(s): At least 60% in 1.0 Philosophy course at the 2000-2999 level, or permission of the department.

The emphasis in this course will be on understanding some of the key questions at stake for continental philosophy such as the relation between truth and appearance, perception and meaning, and what it means to inhabit the earth in this age of technology. We will read some works that can help us to think about what is happening in our contemporary technological world, and we will complicate what is meant by reality. Humans in the modern age are planners. We plan for the future based on the past, attempting to secure everything around us. Contemporary events reveal how that is not completely possible. The future is unpredictable. Hannah Arendt and Martin Heidegger will help us to think through these questions. But we will also draw on some contemporary thinkers to explore how this urge to control intersects with a certain understanding of the world. This understanding provides the bedrock of ÉîÒ¹¸£ÀûÕ¾ thinking that contributes to racialization, sexism and other forms of oppression.

Prerequisite(s): At least 60% in 1.0 Philosophy course at the 2000-2999 level, or permission of the department.

Moral philosophers engaged in normative ethics seek to articulate and justify systems of normative standards - of action or of character - to guide our moral life. This course is an advanced study of normative ethical theories, such as utilitarianism, deontology, and virtue theories.

Prerequisite(s): At least 60% in 1.0 Philosophy course at the 2000-2999 level, or permission of the department.

CROSS-LISTED WITH GSWS 3326G AND ARTHUM 3390G.

Feminist phenomenology is rooted in the study of lived experience. As theory and methodology, it begins with everyday lived experiences which are understood from within a matrix of social, political and institutional forces and structures. We will learn how to make sense of our everyday lives from a feminist critical perspective. For example, the #Me Too movement follows in the tradition of naming and bringing to light that is inherent to feminist phenomenology. Bringing the phenomena (lived experience) to light through description, artworks and literature allows us to analyze how experience is shaped by forces beyond the individual, which can also work to shift the experiences themselves. In this course we will consider some key texts coming out of this tradition, including works by thinkers such as Sara Ahmed, bell hooks, Simone de Beauvoir, Judith Butler, Linda Martín Alcoff, and Mariana Ortega. We will consider how phenomenology has been taken up in queer, trans*, decolonial and critical disability theories.

Among the many innovations credited to the thinkers of the long 18th century, perhaps the most infamous is the invention of the concept of race. In this seminar we will look closely at the 18th century discussion of this concept by both prominent thinkers (including Hume and Kant) and less well-known but influential figures (such as C. Meiners and J. F. Blumenbach), and we will consider a variety of issues including but not limited to the monogenesis/polygenesis debate and the rise of “scientific” racism. In addition, we will consider the work of an African-born thinker in the period, the German philosopher Anton Wilhelm Amo.

Prerequisite(s): At least 60% in 1.0 Philosophy course at the 2000-2999 level, or permission of the department.

Introduction to synthetic biology and to philosophical questions relating to it. These include: is synthetic biology revolutionary? Can it help us gain a better understanding of life? What are the ethical dimensions of creating genetic novelty in various contexts? Some background in bioethics and/or philosophy of science is recommended

Cross-listed with Philosophy 9xxxB.

Prerequisite(s): At least 60% in 1.0 Philosophy course at the 2000-2999 level, or permission of the department.

The narrative of the human pursuit of knowledge has traditionally excluded the voices that were not in power. In this course, we will focus on scientific and technical knowledge and on women. This is a rich case that gives us instruments to recognize the importance of diversity in science. The course is organized in two parts: the first historical and sociological, the second philosophical.

First, we will consider the historical and sociological contexts that have prevented women from accessing and producing scientific knowledge. The students will be introduced to a selection of remarkable women of science, from antiquity to our days. We will discuss the ground-breaking aspects of their work and the specificities of their experience as scientists. We will highlight how gender identity, race and economical background contribute to create different experiences.

We will then discuss questions at the center of the feminist reflection on science: How biases manifest in scientific production? Does the gender of the knower make a difference? At the light of these questions, what does objectivity mean? We will discuss some of the answers
these questions have been given in the field of feminist epistemology, the perspectives these answers opens for general epistemology, and the relation between these issues and current scientific research.

Racism, sexism, and classism are deeply ingrained in our habits and feelings. It seems that in order to change objective conditions we need to change ourselves and our communities. But given that our habits and feelings are often unconscious and resistant to change, how do we philosophically go about doing this? This class tries to answer this question. It starts theoretically with ancient Greek and ancient Chinese virtue ethics as well as Foucault's later work on self-transformation. It then takes these concepts/theories and sees them in action in contemporary movements of self/community transformation. We start with a paradigmatic political activist movement of self-transformation: the Black feminist transformative justice movement with the goal of prison abolition. But as we progress, we will explore less obvious and seemingly more mundane movements of self- and community transformation such as Saba Mahmood's dawa movement from Egypt, Weight Watchers, and finally "ballroom" culture from Detroit. Anthropological ethnographies of these movements will help show how we can self-reflexively shape our own habits and transform ourselves.

This seminar will introduce students to contemporary philosophical research. Students will read and present on material recently published in the instructor's areas of expertise. Students will be guided through the process of identifying paper topics that could contribute to active research in philosophy.

Prerequisite(s):  Third or Fourth year standing in the Honours Specialization in Philosophy. 

An introductory survey of theories of linguistic meaning, drawing principally on classic articles in Analytic philosophy of language which have served as a foundation. Topics will include: reference, truth conditions and possible worlds; assertions and other speech acts; speakers’ reference; conversational implicature; metaphor; indexicals and demonstratives; pragmatic determinants of what is said.

Authors may include: J.L. Austin, Emma Borg, Robyn Carston, Donald Davidson, Keith Donnellan, H. Paul Grice, David Kaplan, Saul Kripke, David Lewis, John Searle, Dan Sperber & Deirdre Wilson, and Catherine Wearing.ation

A study of selected philosophical problems. The problems vary from year to year. More detailed information concerning content and prerequisites may be obtained from the Department prior to registration

Margaret Cavendish developed a unique and philosophically rich natural philosophy during the 1660s. Tragically, her voice was silenced and she was written out of the history of philosophy after her death. This course rectifies that historical wrong and introduces her natural philosophy and its underlying metaphysics to students. We will examine her conception of matter, her mereology, her conception of motion, and her accounts of life and self-activity, individuals and identity, causation, and necessity. Her accounts will be contrasted with those of Rene Descartes and the Cambridge Platonist Henry More. No previous knowledge of Margaret Cavendish’s philosophical thought is required for this course. 

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