Course Descriptions

This course explores some central problems of philosophy through modern and historical texts. Questions covered include: Is the world as you experience it? How do you know what you think you do? Does God exist? What ought we to do? What is beauty? What is a mind? Philosophy proceeds by the presentation and evaluation of reasons for alternative answers to fundamental questions and leads to improved critical, evaluative, and writing skills.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Note: No previous training in philosophy is required or presupposed. Students with credit for PHIL 120 or 133 may not take this course for credit. Students with credit for PHIL 120 or PHIL 133 should take the one they are missing for equivalency to PHIL 110.

This course explores philosophical questions regarding consciousness and personal identity, the nature of reality, knowledge and justification, the existence of God, freedom, and the nature of the self. Philosophy proceeds by the presentation and evaluation of reasons for alternative answers to fundamental questions and leads to improved critical, evaluative, and writing skills.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Note: Students with credit for PHIL 110 may not take this course for credit.

Is reason universal? Is human nature universal? Or are these particular to specific languages and cultures? This course will address these questions through the study of a variety of different world philosophies. This course will look at the way in which a selection of world cultures (East Asian, Indigenous, Latin American, Islamic and African) approach basic questions of philosophy (What is the ultimate nature of reality? What is truth? What is a human being? What is our place in the world? What is good?)

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours

This course explores fundamental questions regarding morality, justice, life’s meaning, or beauty. Questions covered may include: What makes a society just? Do we have obligations regarding what is right? What makes acts good? Are values merely relative? What makes something a work of art? Philosophy proceeds by the presentation and evaluation of reasons for alternative answers to fundamental questions and leads to improved critical, evaluative, and writing skills.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Note: Students with credit for PHIL 110 may not take this course for credit.

This course is an introduction to principles of logic and reasoning. It is designed to develop skills in critical thinking, including the analysis, evaluation, and development of arguments. The course will cover topics in informal logic, deductive logic, and inductive logic, which may include argument analysis, fallacies, categorical logic, natural deduction, causality, Bayesian probability theory, and scientific reasoning.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Note: Students with credit for PHIL 240, 241, 243 or CMPT 260 may not take this course for credit. To receive credit for PHIL 140, 240, 241, 243, or CMPT 260, students must take PHIL 140 prior to the above mentioned courses.

This course explores philosophical questions regarding religion, such as the existence of God, the problem of evil, religious language, religious experience, faith and reason, and morality and religion.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): 3 credit units in philosophy or completion of 18 credit units at the university level or permission of the instructor.

An examination of key authors and texts from Descartes to Hume. Early modern philosophy covers one of the central historical periods of philosophy and saw the emergence of science and development of modern theories of mind and knowledge. This course covers rationalist and empiricist explanations of reality, knowledge, consciousness, and the origin of ideas, as well as the challenge of and responses to skepticism.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): 3 credit units in philosophy or completion of 18 credit units at the university level or permission of the instructor.
Note: PHIL 206 is required for all Philosophy major programs.

A study of the origins of philosophical reasoning in ancient Greece to its most extensive development in the philosophy of Plato. Classical views of the ultimate nature of reality, the scope and limits of human knowledge, and the grounds for aesthetic and moral evaluations will be examined.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): 3 credit units in philosophy or completion of 18 credit units at the university level or permission of the instructor.

The development of philosophy in ancient Greece and Rome from the time of Aristotle to the emergence of Christianity. In addition to a survey of several of the most important aspects of Aristotle's philosophy, this course will examine such schools of thought as Stoicism, Epicureanism, and Neoplatonism.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): 3 credit units in philosophy or completion of 18 credit units at the university level or permission of the instructor.

The study of major thinkers of the early middle ages, including Augustine, Boethius, Eriugena, Anselm, and Abelard. Background will be provided to Neoplatonic themes that shape this period. Topics include free will, happiness, the existence of God, theories of truth, and the problem of universals.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): 3 credit units in philosophy; or RLST 112 and CTST 200; or completion of 18 credit units at the university level; or permission of the instructor.

The study of major Jewish, Muslim, and Christian thinkers of the high middle ages, including Moses Maimonides, Avicenna, Averroes, Bonaventure, Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus, and William of Ockham. Background to Aristotle and his tradition will be provided. Topics include the relation of faith and reason, existence and nature of God, human nature, voluntarism, and the critique of metaphysics.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): 3 credit units in philosophy or completion of 18 credit units at the university level or permission of the instructor.

This course is a survey of the historical origins of analytic philosophy (circa 1900–1960). Central philosophers include Bertrand Russell, G. E. Moore, Ludwig Wittgenstein, A. J. Ayer, Rudolf Carnap and W.V.O. Quine. Central themes include logical atomism and logical positivism in metaphysics and science, external world skepticism and empiricism in epistemology, perception and behaviourism in the philosophy of mind, meaning and reference in the philosophy of language, emotivism in ethics, and verificationism in the philosophy of science.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): 3 credit units in philosophy or completion of 12 credit units at the university.

An introduction to 19th and 20th Century existentialist thought from Kierkegaard and Nietzsche to Sartre. Issues to be explored concern the human quest for meaning in existence and include the nature of the human self, truth, freedom, mortality, the significance of God, and the possibility of interpersonal relations.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): 3 credit units in philosophy or completion of 18 credit units at the university level or permission of the instructor.

Phenomenology is the systematic study of human experience. It aims at breaking through some of our ingrained thinking habits and prejudices in order to reveal various aspects of our lived experience. Whether these prejudices come from psychology, philosophy, or an overly theoretically-laden civilization, the goal of phenomenology is to restore the world as it is actually experienced by us or, as Sartre describes it, to restore to things both their horror and their charm. This course will examine iconic figures in phenomenology such as Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, and Levinas.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): 3 credit units in philosophy or completion of 18 credit units at the university level or permission of the instructor.

Most of us spend a significant portion of our lives immersed in digital worlds of one form or another, whether through social media, online gaming, or in virtual communities. Our identities and relationships have always reflected our wider social networks; how has life in the digital world changed how we think about these things? In this course we will seek to understand and evaluate digital worlds and how we inhabit them from a variety of philosophical perspectives. Topics to be discussed may include: Online identity (both individual and social), anonymity and accountability, digital citizenship, piracy and file sharing, cyberbullying, cybersex, hacking and ‘hactivism’, and internet addiction.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): 3 credit units in philosophy or completion of 18 credit units at the university level or permission of the instructor.

What counts as sex? Does being in a sexual relationship with one person restrict our interactions with others? Is it ever okay to objectify someone? Should society endorse certain kinds of sexual relationship and not others? The focus is on philosophical perspectives on sex, sexuality, gender, and erotic love as we consider questions such as the nature of sex, perversion, masturbation, orientation and identity, homosexuality, objectification, pornography, prostitution, and other moral and political issues regarding sexuality.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): 3 credit units in philosophy or completion of 18 credit units at the university level or permission of the instructor.

Philosophical issues concerning the human relationship with the natural environment, including ethical and political questions about how we interact with the physical world and its inhabitants and about the interpretation of the natural. Topics may include the value and rights of nonhumans, environmental aesthetics, the identification of the "natural," ecotopias, and global environmental justice.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): 3 credit units in philosophy or completion of 18 credit units at the university level or permission of the instructor.

Behind many of the criticisms made of contemporary society, whether criticisms of its excessive consumerism, bureaucracy and control, surveillance, one-dimensional thinking or its more general malaise, are influential philosophers such as Adorno, Horkheimer, Foucault, Marcuse, Arendt, and Taylor. This course will examine the philosophical basis for common criticisms of society originating in post-Marxist thinkers and extending beyond.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): 3 credit units in philosophy or completion of 18 credit units at the university level or permission of the instructor.

This course examines a variety of moral issues, such as human sexuality, abortion, euthanasia, war and revolution, environmental ethics and animal rights, and prejudice and discrimination.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): 3 credit units in philosophy or completion of 18 credit units at the university level or permission of the instructor.

This course provides a practical introduction to ethics and professionalism for students enrolled in Computer Science programs. Students will be introduced to forms of ethical decision making as well as some of the basic legal frameworks of information technology domain, and will become conversant with professional codes of ethics in their discipline. Specific topics to be addressed may include privacy, intellectual property, and security in information technology. Attention will also be paid to the practical aspects of how computing professionals are expected to deal effectively with conflicts of interest, professional communications, and various stakeholder relationships in professional practice.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Restriction(s): Restricted to students in the Computer Science and Interactive Systems Design programs.
Prerequisite(s): Completion of at least 6 credit units in 100-level CMPT

What makes an action morally right? Does it depend on what a moral being is? What makes us morally responsible? This course is an investigation of some of the most historically important theories, an examination of their fundamental commitments, and some discussion of contemporary versions of those theories. Philosophers studied will include Aristotle, Kant, and Mill, and others.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): 3 credit units in philosophy or completion of 18 credit units at the university level or permission of the instructor.

An examination of contemporary biomedical ethical issues such as the definition of a person, determination of life and death, euthanasia, abortion, prenatal diagnosis and intervention, problems in the physician-patient relationship, reproductive technologies, genetic engineering and accessibility to health care.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): 3 credit units in philosophy or completion of 18 credit units at the university level or permission of the instructor.

An overview of ethical issues related to the impact of modern technology on society, on scientific research, on the activities of corporations and professionals, and how technology affects our understanding of ethical responsibility. Specific topics that may be considered include issues in biotechnology (including genetic engineering and genomic medicine), information technology (including data privacy and the use of encryption technologies), as well as related issues such as intellectual property rights and risk assessment.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): 3 credit units in philosophy or completion of 18 credit units at the university level or permission of the instructor.

An introduction to philosophical issues regarding law and its relation to morality. Issues to be explored concern the nature and validity of law and the law's proper limits in relation to topics such as freedom of expression, pornography, the definition of family and marriage, civil disobedience, abortion and capital punishment.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): 3 credit units in philosophy or completion of 18 credit units at the university level or permission of the instructor.

What is a just cause to go to war? Are there moral ways to fight a war? Is the only morally defensible position to oppose war altogether and embrace pacifism? How does morality even apply in a time of weapons of mass destruction and global terrorism? This course will examine just war theory and consider challenges presented by pacifists, moral sceptics and by the contemporary nature of war itself.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): 3 credit units in philosophy or completion of 18 credit units at the university level or permission of the instructor.

An introduction to modern logic. The syntax, semantics, and proof theory of truth-functional statement logic and first order predicate logic. Formalization of natural language statements and arguments.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): 3 credit units in philosophy or completion of 18 credit units at the university level or permission of the instructor.
Note: Students with credit for PHIL 242 or 243 may not take this course for credit, nor may students take PHIL 241 and 243 concurrently. To receive credit for both PHIL 241 and 243 students must take PHIL 241 prior to PHIL 243.

A continuation of the logic covered in PHIL 241. A brief review of semantics and proof theory for propositional logic, followed by its metatheory; introduction to modal logics and their philosophical significance; polyadic predicate logic with identity; definite descriptions; elementary set theory; time permitting, topics on non-standard elementary logic.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): PHIL 241 or CMPT 260.
Note: Students with credit for PHIL 242 may not take this course for credit.

An introduction to the nature, extent and significance of scientific knowledge. Problems about the nature of scientific theories and models, scientific explanation and prediction, scientific growth, and issues about the relationship between science, religion and morality will be discussed.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): 3 credit units in philosophy or 6 credit units in science or completion of 18 credit units at the university level or permission of the instructor.

An examination of philosophical theories of political organization. Such issues as justice and power, rights, freedom and the public good will be discussed.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): 3 credit units in philosophy or completion of 18 credit units at the university level or permission of the instructor.

This course explores basic issues in aesthetics. What is art? Are aesthetic judgments objective or merely subjective matters of taste and feeling? Is it possible to have standards of criticism? Is art fictional and if so can it be true? What is the place of art in human life?

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): 3 credit units in philosophy, or 6 credit units in fine arts or LIT, or completion of 18 credit units at the university level, or permission of the instructor.

What do we really experience when we listen to music? Why do we appreciate the music we do? Do we appreciate music because of the objective properties in the music? Does it have to be beautiful? Or is music appreciation more a matter of subjectivity? Does music cause pleasure? Does it express something? Does it mean something? Is it like a language? How is music related to technology? Does music make us better or worse? What role does it play in society? What role should it play in society? These are some of the questions we will address in this class devoted to the philosophy of music.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): 3 credit units in philosophy, or 6 credit units in fine arts or LIT, or completion of 18 credit units at the university level, or permission of the instructor.

This course explores philosophical questions that arise concerning film, including those involving the value, meaning, and ontology of film. Questions covered may include: What is the nature of film? What is the role of theory in the filmmaking process? Why do viewing audiences have the kinds of experiences that they do? What is the purpose of filmmaking? Is film a suitable medium for engaging in the practice of philosophy? What is the connection between the value of a film and its moral content? What role do the filmmaker’s intentions play in the correct interpretation of a film? The questions and theories considered may be addressed from the points of view of filmmakers, critics, philosophers, and viewing audiences.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): 3 credit units in philosophy or completion of 18 credit units at the university level or permission of the instructor.

Examines the status and extent of our knowledge of the world, of ourselves, and other people. Problems about the nature of knowledge, the justification of claims of knowledge, the relationship of knowledge to belief and truth, perception, and the viability of scepticism will be discussed.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): 3 credit units in philosophy or completion of 18 credit units at the university level or permission of the instructor.

An introduction to the Philosophy of Mind. Topics include: consciousness, thought, intentionality, emotions, action and the will, other minds (human and artificial), the concept of the self and theories about the nature of the mind.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): 3 credit units in philosophy or completion of 18 credit units at the university level or permission of the instructor.

An investigation into some central problems of metaphysics regarding the nature of reality. Questions to be considered may include: What exists and how does it continue through time? What is time? What are things? Are humans free? What are causes? Are there selves and can they remain the same if they change?

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): 3 credit units in philosophy or completion of 18 credit units at the university level or permission of the instructor.

Death is inevitable. This course examines the philosophical significance of this by considering a variety of issues surrounding the meaning, reality, and moral and political implications of death and dying. Some of the following questions may be studied: Would it be good to be immortal? Does anything survive the bodily death of a person? What does it mean to be dead? Is death an evil? How should an understanding of my own mortality influence the way I live my life?

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): 3 credit units in philosophy or completion of 18 credit units at the university level or permission of the instructor.

A philosophical examination of whether there is a human nature, through both historical and contemporary discussions. Will include topics such as the importance of narrative, biology and evolution, selfishness, gender, race, freedom, and personhood.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): 3 credit units in philosophy or completion of 18 credit units at the university level or permission of the instructor.

Offered occasionally by visiting faculty and in other special situations to cover, in depth, topics that are not thoroughly covered in regularly offered courses.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours

Offered occasionally by visiting faculty and in other special situations to cover, in depth, topics that are not thoroughly covered in regularly offered courses.

Weekly hours: 3 Seminar/Discussion hours

A study of major topics in recent analytic and/or continental philosophy of religion. Topics include the rationality of religious belief, the nature of God, religious language, the problem of evil, critiques of religion, and the interface of major world religions.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): 3 credit units in philosophy at the 200-level or above, and completion of 24 credit units at the university level; or permission of the instructor.

Thomas Aquinas, widely considered the greatest and most influential thinker of the medieval period, advanced a philosophical project of such depth and coherence that it still influences and informs the thought of many philosophers today. Drawing upon the basic metaphysical framework Aquinas sets out, this course will examine his thought about God and the nature of the human person and consider its continuing relevance today.

Prerequisite(s): 3 credit units in philosophy at the 200-level or above, and completion of 24 credit units at the university level; or permission of the instructor.
Note: Students who have taken PHIL 412.3 Philosophy of Thomas Aquinas I cannot take this course for credit.

Thomas Aquinas, widely considered the greatest and most influential thinker of the medieval period, advanced a philosophical project of such depth and coherence that it still influences and informs the thought of many philosophers today. This course will examine Aquinas's conception of moral philosophy – an account of how we should think about human choices and actions, laws, and the state – and consider its continuing relevance for human living and flourishing today.

Weekly hours: 3 Seminar/Discussion hours
Prerequisite(s): 3 credit units in philosophy at the 200-level or above, and completion of 24 credit units at the university level; or permission of the instructor
Note: Students who have taken PHIL 413.3 Philosophy of Thomas Aquinas II cannot take this course for credit.

A seminar in early modern philosophy focussing on the work of a specific philosopher or a philosophical topic.

Prerequisite(s): 3 credit units in philosophy at the 200-level or above, and completion of 24 credit units at the university level; or permission of the instructor.
Note: Historical and Topical content will vary from year to year. See department for latest details. Students may take this course more than once for credit, provided the topic or period covered in each offering differs substantially. Students must consult the department to ensure that the topics covered are different.

Detailed reading in the work of a major philosopher such as Aristotle, Descartes, or Hume.

Weekly hours: 3 Seminar/Discussion hours
Prerequisite(s): 3 credit units in philosophy at the 200-level or above, and completion of 24 credit units at the university level; or permission of the instructor.
Note: Historical and Topical content will vary from year to year. See department for latest details. Students may take this course more than once for credit, provided the topic or period covered in each offering differs substantially. Students must consult the department to ensure that the topics covered are different.

Consists of detailed reading in the work of some major philosopher.

Weekly hours: 3 Seminar/Discussion hours
Prerequisite(s): 3 credit units in philosophy at the 200-level or above, and completion of 24 credit units at the university level; or permission of the instructor.
Note: Historical and Topical content will vary from year to year. See department for latest details. Students may take this course more than once for credit, provided the topic or period covered in each offering differs substantially. Students must consult the department to ensure that the topics covered are different.

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) is generally regarded as one the greatest philosophical thinkers of the Enlightenment, and of all time. This course will offer an examination of the Kant’s philosophical thought, including the critical system developed in Critique of Pure Reason, and a study of his practical philosophy.

Weekly hours: 3 Seminar/Discussion hours
Prerequisite(s): 3 credit units in philosophy at the 200-level or above, and completion of 24 credit units at the university level; or permission of the instructor.

Examines specific issues or authors in current continental philosophy. Areas of discussion might include critical theory, aesthetics, or hermeneutics, and authors such as Foucault, Habermas, Derrida, or Gadamer.

Weekly hours: 3 Seminar/Discussion hours
Prerequisite(s): 3 credit units in philosophy at the 200-level or above, and completion of 24 credit units at the university level; or permission of the instructor.
Note: Historical and Topical content will vary from year to year. See department for latest details. Students may take this course more than once for credit, provided the topic or period covered in each offering differs substantially. Students must consult the department to ensure that the topics covered are different.

The topic, movement or philosophers studied will vary from year to year.

Weekly hours: 3 Seminar/Discussion hours
Prerequisite(s): 3 credit units in philosophy at the 200-level or above, and completion of 24 credit units at the university level; or permission of the instructor.
Note: Historical and Topical content will vary from year to year. See department for latest details. Students may take this course more than once for credit, provided the topic or period covered in each offering differs substantially. Students must consult the department to ensure that the topics covered are different.

Concerned with topics such as the cognitive status of judgements about what is right and good, about the grounds of ethical judgement and the logic of ethical argument, and about the role of rules and principles in ethical dispute.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): 3 credit units in philosophy at the 200-level or above, and completion of 24 credit units at the university level; or permission of the instructor.

A seminar in moral philosophy that will focus every year on a different issue, philosopher or theories.

Weekly hours: 3 Seminar/Discussion hours
Prerequisite(s): 3 credit units PHIL courses at the 200-level or above and completion of at least 24 credit units at the university level; or permission of the instructor.
Note(s) Topical content will vary from year to year. See department for latest details. Students may take this course more than once for credit, provided the topic or period covered in each offering differs substantially. Students must consult the department to ensure that the topics covered are different.

A critical examination of attempts to provide theories of the nature of law. This course will examine the debate between legal positivists and natural law theorists, as well as the reaction to this debate (e.g. Dworkin, legal realists, critical legal theorists, and feminists).

Weekly hours: 3 Seminar/Discussion hours
Prerequisite(s): 3 credit units in philosophy at the 200-level or above, and completion of 24 credit units at the university level; or permission of the instructor.

The topic, political philosopher, movement or theories studied will vary from year to year.

Weekly hours: 3 Seminar/Discussion hours
Prerequisite(s): 3 credit units in philosophy at the 200-level or above, and completion of 24 credit units at the university level; or permission of the instructor.
Note: Historical and Topical content will vary from year to year. See department for latest details. Students may take this course more than once for credit, provided the topic or period covered in each offering differs substantially. Students must consult the department to ensure that the topics covered are different.

Offered occasionally by visiting faculty and in other special situations to cover, in depth, topics that are not thoroughly covered in regularly offered courses.

Weekly hours: 3 Seminar/Discussion hours

Offered occasionally by visiting faculty and in other special situations to cover, in depth, topics that are not thoroughly covered in regularly offered courses.

Weekly hours: 3 Seminar/Discussion hours

Philosophical aspects of contemporary psychological and theological problems treated at an advanced level. Selected readings in Freud, Jung, Ryle, Merleau-Ponty, Marcel, Ricoeur and others.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): 6 credit units in philosophy at the 200-level or above, and completion of 24 credit units at the university level; or permission of the instructor.

An advanced seminar in contemporary philosophy primarily for honours students. Focuses on a recent important book or a set of related journal articles on a central philosophical subject. Emphasis will be on student presentations and discussion.

Weekly hours: 3 Seminar/Discussion hours
Prerequisite(s): 6 credit units in philosophy at the 200-level or above, and completion of 24 credit units at the university level; or permission of the instructor.
Note: Historical and Topical content will vary from year to year. See department for latest details. Students may take this course more than once for credit, provided the topic or period covered in each offering differs substantially. Students must consult the department to ensure that the topics covered are different.

An advanced course in value theory. The topic, ethical philosopher, movement or theories studied will vary from year to year.

Weekly hours: 3 Seminar/Discussion hours
Prerequisite(s): 6 credit units in philosophy at the 200-level or above, and completion of 24 credit units at the university level; or permission of the instructor.
Note: Historical and Topical content will vary from year to year. See department for latest details. Students may take this course more than once for credit, provided the topic or period covered in each offering differs substantially. Students must consult the department to ensure that the topics covered are different.

An introduction to philosophical problems about language and linguistic approaches to philosophy. How language represents reality; how language colours our thoughts about reality; language as a vehicle of communication. Traditional accounts of truth, meaning, reference, predication and expression will be discussed, as well as methodology in language study and linguistic philosophy.

Weekly hours: 3 Seminar/Discussion hours
Prerequisite(s): 6 credit units in philosophy at the 200-level or above, and completion of 24 credit units at the university level; or permission of the instructor.
Note: Students with credit for PHIL 846 will not receive credit for this course.

An advanced seminar in social and political philosophy that will focus every year on a different issue, philosopher or theories.

Weekly hours: 3 Seminar/Discussion hours
Prerequisite(s): 6 credit units in philosophy at the 200-level or above, and completion of 24 credit units at the university level; or permission of the instructor.
Note: Topical content will vary from year to year. See department for latest details. Students may take this course more than once for credit, provided the topic or period covered in each offering differs substantially. Students must consult the department to ensure that the topics covered are different.

Advanced Topics in the Philosophy of Mind: topic will vary from year to year, and will include issues such as meaning and mental representation, intentionality, phenomenal consciousness and qualia, folk psychology and propositional attitudes, supervenience and reduction, mental imagery, other minds and personal identity.

Weekly hours: 3 Seminar/Discussion hours
Prerequisite(s): 6 credit units in philosophy at the 200-level or above, and completion of 24 credit units at the university level; or permission of the instructor.
Note: Historical and Topical content will vary from year to year. See department for latest details. Students may take this course more than once for credit, provided the topic or period covered in each offering differs substantially. Students must consult the department to ensure that the topics covered are different.

Advanced topics in Metaphysics; topics such as the nature of metaphysics, personal identity, universals, skepticism, substance, properties and relations, and necessity and possibility.

Weekly hours: 3 Seminar/Discussion hours
Prerequisite(s): 6 credit units in philosophy at the 200-level or above, and completion of 24 credit units at the university level; or permission of the instructor.
Note: Historical and Topical content will vary from year to year. See department for latest details. Students may take this course more than once for credit, provided the topic or period covered in each offering differs substantially. Students must consult the department to ensure that the topics covered are different.

Offered occasionally by visiting faculty and in other special situations to cover, in depth, topics that are not thoroughly covered in regularly offered courses.

Weekly hours: 3 Seminar/Discussion hours

Offered occasionally by visiting faculty and in other special situations to cover, in depth, topics that are not thoroughly covered in regularly offered courses.

Weekly hours: 3 Seminar/Discussion hours

A seminar in early modern philosophy concentrating on one or more of the empiricists (Locke, Berkeley, Hume) or the rationalists (Descartes, Spinoza and Leibniz).

Weekly hours: 3 Seminar/Discussion hours

A seminar on Kant's critical philosophy, with an emphasis on his Critique of Pure Reason.

Weekly hours: 3 Seminar/Discussion hours
Note: Students may take this course more than once for credit, provided the topic or period covered in each offering differs substantially. Students must consult the department to ensure that the topics covered are different. This course is academically cross-listed with PHIL 314.

A seminar on modern existentialism, phenomenology or critical theory; including figures such as Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, Foucault and Habermas.

Weekly hours: 3 Seminar/Discussion hours
Note: Students may take this course more than once for credit, provided the topic or period covered in each offering differs substantially. Students must consult the department to ensure that the topics covered are different. This course is academically cross-listed with PHIL 319.

A seminar concentrating on an important recent philosophical text. The content will vary from year to year.

Weekly hours: 3 Seminar/Discussion hours
Note: Students may take this course more than once for credit, provided the topic or period covered in each offering differs substantially. Students must consult the department to ensure that the topics covered are different.

A seminar on topics in the philosophy of mind and cognitive science. Topics may include consciousness, mental representation, intentionality, qualia, supervenience, theoretical reduction, emotion, action and agency.

Weekly hours: 3 Seminar/Discussion hours
Note: Students may take this course more than once for credit, provided the topic or period covered in each offering differs substantially. Students must consult the department to ensure that the topics covered are different. This course is academically cross-listed with PHIL 485.

A seminar in ethical theory and metaethics; topics include the cognitive status of moral judgements, the logic of ethical argument, and the nature of moral reasoning.

Weekly hours: 3 Seminar/Discussion hours
Note: Students may take this course more than once for credit, provided the topic or period covered in each offering differs substantially. Students must consult the department to ensure that the topics covered are different. This course is academically cross-listed with PHIL 433.

A seminar on the nature of metaphysics; topics may include existence, ontology, substance, universals, necessity, identity and change, time and space, causation, and free will.

Weekly hours: 3 Seminar/Discussion hours
Note: Students may take this course more than once for credit, provided the topic or period covered in each offering differs substantially. Students must consult the department to ensure that the topics covered are different. This course is academically cross-listed with PHIL 492.

A seminar on philosophical problems about language; topics may include how language represents reality, traditional accounts of meaning, reference, predication and expression.

Weekly hours: 3 Seminar/Discussion hours
Note: Students may take this course more than once for credit, provided the topic or period covered in each offering differs substantially. Students must consult the department to ensure that the topics covered are different. This course is academically cross-listed with PHIL 446.

A seminar on conceptual, epistemological and historical topics in the philosophy of the physical and biological sciences; topics may include the nature of scientific rationality, objectivity, explanation in science, and scientific realism.

Weekly hours: 3 Seminar/Discussion hours
Note: Students may take this course more than once for credit, provided the topic or period covered in each offering differs substantially. Students must consult the department to ensure that the topics covered are different.

Examines a recent topic, political philosopher, movement or theory. Topics studied will vary from year to year.

Weekly hours: 3 Seminar/Discussion hours
Note: Students may take this course more than once for credit, provided the topic or period covered in each offering differs substantially. Students must consult the department to ensure that the topics covered are different.

Examines the philosophical problems related to the arts; topics may include the nature of art, meaning and expression in art, and the nature of aesthetic value judgments.

Weekly hours: 3 Seminar/Discussion hours
Note: Students may take this course more than once for credit, provided the topic or period covered in each offering differs substantially. Students must consult the department to ensure that the topics covered are different.

Offered occasionally in special situations. Students interested in these courses should contact the department for more information.

Offered occasionally in special situations. Students interested in these courses should contact the department for more information.

The graduate seminar involves paper presentations on current research by graduate students, department and cognate faculty, and visiting scholars. Graduate students must register in and attend the seminar on a continuous basis, and are only eligible to graduate once they have successfully presented a seminar.

Students writing a Master's thesis must register for this course every term.