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Philosophy

  • PHL 101 - Plato and the Roots of Western Philosophy
    Course DescriptionAn introduction to philosophy using Plato's Republic and possibly other dialogues. Topics include: How ought we to live our lives? What is justice? What role should appetites and emotions play in our lives? What is the nature of society and the individual? What social arrangements (educational, political, economic) best serve the ideals of justice and happiness?
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Liberal Studies:LL
  • PHL 102 - What is Philosophy?
    Course DescriptionWhat is philosophy and why does it matter? This course is an introduction to philosophy as a drive to understand and think critically about the world and our place within it, respond to challenging questions, and solve theoretical problems. Through a sustained dialogue with texts from diverse philosophical traditions, students will learn philosophy by doing it: that is, by engaging with their peers in the practices and methods of philosophical inquiry.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
  • PHL 110 - Philosophy of Religion I
    Course DescriptionThis course examines religion from a philosophical perspective. By examining historical and contemporary readings, students will grapple with questions like these: Is there an ultimate religious reality, and if so, what is it like? Can one prove, or disprove, that God exists? What is faith, and how does it relate to reason? What happens after we die? Do miracles happen? How should we understand religious diversity?
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Liberal Studies:LL
  • PHL 187 - Classical Philosophy
    Course DescriptionThis course explores themes in the Classical periods of a number of philosophical traditions such as African, Persian, Islamic, Indian, Chinese, Judean, Greek and Roman. Approaches may include tracing a single theme or question through several traditions, or examining key ideas and thinkers within their respective traditions. Themes could include what philosophy is, how it may be expressed in a variety of ways (poetry, dialogue, fiction, way of life), and metaphysical, epistemological and ethical questions.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Liberal Studies:LL
  • PHL 201 - Problems in Philosophy
    Course DescriptionThis course is an introduction to some core philosophical problems. By examining historical and contemporary readings, students will grapple with profound questions such as: Do we have free will? What makes you the same person through time and change? Does God exist? How are mind and body related? What is knowledge, and do we have any? What is morality? Students will develop their skills in analyzing, evaluating, and constructing arguments.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Liberal Studies:LL
    Antirequisites:PHC 180
  • PHL 210 - Introduction to Indian Philosophy
    Course DescriptionThis course provides an introduction to Indian philosophy; its history, major figures, schools, and development from Antiquity to the late classical period. These may include: Speculative thought in the Vedic Corpus; Carvaka Materialism; Early Buddhist thought; Jain thought; Samkhya-Yoga philosophy; the Nyaya and Vaisesika Schools; Brahmanical social philosophy; Mahayana Buddhist philosophy; and Classical Vedanta. Topics may include self-hood, suffering, the good life, metaphysics, and theories of knowledge.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Liberal Studies:LL
  • PHL 212 - Introductory Logic
    Course DescriptionThis course is an introduction to propositional and predicate logic that considers the relationships between formal logical languages and ordinary languages like English, the relationship between validity in a system and logical validity, and various methods for showing the validity and invalidity of patterns of inference. The course will include a brief introduction to some of the meta-logical concepts that are the core of more advanced studies in logic (e.g. soundness and completeness).
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Antirequisites:PHL 597
  • PHL 214 - Critical Thinking
    Course DescriptionA course designed to develop clarity of thought and method in the construction, analysis and evaluation of both unsupported claims and those supported by arguments. While there will be some exposure to the notion of logical form, the emphasis here is on informal principles and arguments stated in ordinary language. Topics include the nature and methods of argument, classification and definition, along with some common fallacies and questions about meaning and language.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Liberal Studies:LL
    Antirequisites:SSH 105, PHC 182
    Custom Requisites:Not available to ACS, Criminology, English, Environmental and Urban Sustainability, Geography, History, GCM, Int'l Econ, Philosophy, Politics and Governance, Psychology, Sociology or Undeclared Arts students.
  • PHL 302 - Ethics and Health Care
    Course DescriptionThis course examines ethical issues arising in the delivery of health care at both the level of the practitioner/client relationship (confidentiality, informed consent, euthanasia, abortion) and at a broader social level (justice and resource allocation, new technologies, professionalization and power). The course will draw on: a) general philosophical analysis of central concepts (good, right, justice, person-hood, autonomy, authority, integrity, health); b) general theoretical perspectives (feminism, "the Biomedical model", Utilitarianism, deontology); and c) student professional education and clinical experience in nursing.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Antirequisites:PHL 509
  • PHL 306 - Freedom, Equality, Limits of Authority
    Course DescriptionThis course examines philosophical and ethical principles relevant to the concepts of freedom, equality and authority through an exploration of current social and political controversies. Topics may include free speech, individual rights, negative and positive liberty, the limits of governmental and institutional authority, social inclusion and exclusion, economic and social inequality, civil disobedience, and collective responsibility.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Liberal Studies:LL
    Antirequisites:PHC 181, PHL 181
  • PHL 307 - Business Ethics
    Course DescriptionThis course examines ethical issues and controversies concerning contemporary business practices and situates them within the broad intellectual framework of a free market society. Discussion will draw from such topics as: the concept of a market society, consumer sovereignty, utilitarian and contract models of business ethics, profit making and social responsibility, self-interest and altruism, the concept of business as a practice, mechanistic and organic conceptions of business, advertising, human rights, and conflicts of interest.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Antirequisites:BUS 223, ITM 407, ITM 734
  • PHL 333 - Philosophy of Human Nature
    Course DescriptionThis course examines philosophical writings about human nature. Topics may include: 1) What meanings are there for the word 'nature'? 2) How do we differentiate human nature from the nature of other sorts of beings? 3) What makes a response to a problem a human response? The course presumes that there are no unquestioned first principles, such as the existence of God, the inherent goodness of humans, or the objectivity of truth claims and values.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Liberal Studies:LL
  • PHL 365 - Philosophy of Beauty
    Course DescriptionThis course examines classical and contemporary philosophical discussion of questions surrounding beauty and the aesthetic, such as: Can beauty be defined? Are judgements of beauty fundamentally subjective? Does beauty have value, or is it a harmful and oppressive notion? Are humans 'hard-wired' to pursue the beautiful?
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Liberal Studies:LL
  • PHL 366 - Existentialism and Art and Culture
    Course DescriptionThrough literature, visual art, film, and theory, this course explores existentialist lines of thought and their implications for modern day life. Existentialism is a philosophical and cultural movement critical of social illusions and self-deceptions that thwart genuine freedom. Exploring experiences of anxiety, futility, and isolation, analyzing the nature of the individual's relation to society, morality and religion, and arguing for the irrational nature of reality, existentialist theorists and artists seek to promote freedom, creativity, authenticity.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Liberal Studies:LL
  • PHL 400 - Human Rights and Justice
    Course DescriptionThis course aims to provide the philosophical background and conceptual tools which would enable students to recognize and handle complex contemporary issues and conflicts involving human rights. Topics include: classic and contemporary theories of rights and justice; equity and affirmative action; children's rights; gender, sexual orientation and equality rights; aboriginal, language and cultural rights: human rights and cultural relativism. The course will combine lectures and discussion of selected philosophical readings and case studies.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
  • PHL 401 - Philosophy and Mass Culture
    Course DescriptionThis course will explore the phenomenon of popular culture from various philosophical perspectives. Philosophers are divided in their assessment of the aesthetic and moral worth of mass culture. While some thinkers, like Walter Benjamin and, more recently, Noël Carroll, tend toward an optimistic appraisal, others, like Theodor Adorno, adopt a much more critical attitude. Popular culture as a whole will be examined, but special attention will be given to film, photography, and television.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
  • PHL 402 - Ancient Greek Philosophy
    Course DescriptionThis course explores major themes in Ancient Greek thought. The course covers some of the doctrines of Plato and Aristotle, and may include figures such as Pre-Socratic and ancient women philosophers. Discussions will focus on such questions as: What is the good life for a human being? What is knowledge? How should we distinguish reality from appearances? What kinds of things exist? What is the soul? How can we become better people?
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Custom Requisites:Available only to Philosophy and Philosophy Co-op, Philosophy-English, Philosophy-History, and Arts and Contemporary Studies Philosophy option students.
  • PHL 403 - Early Modern Philosophy
    Course DescriptionThis course examines the foundations of modern philosophy in the two dominant traditions of the 17th and 18th century: rationalism and empiricism. The philosophers studied include Descartes, Hume and Kant, and a selection of their contemporaries, e.g. Berkeley, Cavendish, du Chatelet, Conway, Leibniz, Locke, Malebranche, Reid, Shepherd, Spinoza. Topics may include the foundations and limits of knowledge, the nature of reality, skepticism, causation, the mind-body relation, person-hood, free will, good and evil, passions and emotions.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:PHL 102
    Antirequisites:PHL 708
    Custom Requisites:Available only to Philosophy and Philosophy Co-op, Philosophy-English, Philosophy-History, and Arts and Contemporary Studies Philosophy option students
  • PHL 404 - Introduction to Ethics
    Course DescriptionThis course surveys a number of historical and contemporary approaches to moral philosophy, an inquiry into how we ought to live. Students will explore some of the key concepts and arguments in Aristotle's ethics of virtue and Kant's ethics of personal duties, as well as selected theories from other classical or more recent philosophers such as Mengzi, Beauvoir, Appiah, Hospers, Williams, Noddings, Nussbaum, or Driver.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
  • PHL 405 - Introduction to Political Philosophy
    Course DescriptionThis course examines the nature of political life through key historical and contemporary texts, focusing on themes such as freedom, justice, equality, authority, autonomy, power, populism, oppression, protest, war, revolution, and collective responsibility. Questions to be considered may include: What is power? What are the limits of sovereignty? What constitutes a political subject or community? What is the relationship between politics and ethics? What is freedom and who is free?
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
  • PHL 406 - Issues of Life, Death and Poverty
    Course DescriptionIn light of our moral concepts and theories, this course critically examines current controversies concerning the sanctity of life, the constraints on ending life, and our obligations to provide the conditions for an acceptable life. Topics are drawn from issues like the following: abortion, euthanasia, capital punishment, genetic manipulation, war, torture, global poverty, famine relief, and basic welfare rights.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Liberal Studies:LL
    Antirequisites:PHC 181, PHL 181
  • PHL 420 - Philosophy, Diversity and Recognition
    Course DescriptionThis course is a philosophical investigation of different conceptual frameworks concerning the problems of marginalization and discrimination due to race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, disability, Indigenous identity, or socioeconomic status. Is it enough to address the problem of marginalization in terms of equality, equity, and legal constitution? Can law or policy change discriminatory attitudes and unconscious bias? Would a different approach based on a politics of recognition, identity, or difference be more effective?
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
  • PHL 449 - Philosophy of Punishment
    Course DescriptionHow might goals of the criminal justice system, including the maintenance of public order and the protection of safety come into conflict with demands of justice that punishment should be only for the guilty and proportionate? What should be done to remedy the conflict? This course critically examines developments in philosophical thinking about conceptual foundations of punishment, focusing on theories of deterrence, retributivism, and restorative justice. Readings include classic and contemporary works by philosophers.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
  • PHL 500 - Philosophy of the Natural Environment
    Course DescriptionThe rise of environmental philosophy challenges the "anthropocentric paradigm" that has dominated Western thought. This course explores the implications of this challenge for our conception of ourselves, the basis for both human and natural values, and our obligations within the human and biotic communities. Topics include: traditional philosophical attitudes towards nature, obligations to future generations, "animal rights", individual versus holistic models of value in relation to ecosystems, species and wilderness, and conflicts between human and natural values.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Liberal Studies:UL
  • PHL 501 - Oppression and the Critique of Power
    Course DescriptionThis course explores the nature and effects of power in both its dominating and liberating forms, oppression as the outcome of systemic structures of power, and collective resistance to domination. Topics may include: economic exploitation and the critique of capitalism; patriarchal power and feminist resistance; global struggles against colonialism and structural racism; the ethics and efficacy of using violence to end violence; the role of identity in political struggle; and the intersectionality of oppression.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Liberal Studies:UL
  • PHL 502 - Aristotle
    Course DescriptionOne of the pillars of ancient Greek philosophy, Aristotle produced seminal work in a wide range of fields including logic, epistemology, metaphysics, physics, cosmogony, biology, philosophy of mind and action, ethics, politics, and aesthetics. This course will critically examine selected themes and doctrines in Aristotle's writings, such as his positions on the nature of time, causation, divinity, the human soul, gender differences, the ideal state, and tragic drama.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:a minimum of six PHL/CPHL courses
  • PHL 503 - Ancient and Modern Ethics
    Course DescriptionThis course explores seminal works in Western ethics. It analyzes different responses to such questions as: What kind of life is ultimately worth leading? What makes a person good? What makes an action right? Are there moral demands that bind everyone? If so, can we know what they are? Does morality have its foundations in religion? Reason? Emotion? Social practices? Contributions from such thinkers as Aristotle, Aquinas, Hume, Kant, and Mill will be studied.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Liberal Studies:UL
  • PHL 504 - Philosophy of Art
    Course DescriptionThe objective of this course is to provide students with an overview of a number of different theories concerning the nature of art. It will address such matters as the relationship between art and truth, the appropriate criteria of art criticism, the distinction between art and non-art, and the nature of aesthetic values.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Liberal Studies:UL
  • PHL 505 - Hegel and Marx
    Course DescriptionThis course is focused on the work of Hegel and Marx, 19th century philosophers who were influential for introducing the notion that our lives only make sense when understood historically in relation to our struggle with nature and with each other. Hegel saw this struggle as oriented towards greater self-knowledge and the freedom of the human spirit; Marx saw it in materialist terms, arguing that economic exploitation, and in particular capitalism, is the main obstacle to human freedom.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Liberal Studies:UL
  • PHL 506 - Early Modern Rationalism
    Course DescriptionThis course provides an in-depth examination of selected themes and arguments of the rationalist movement of the 17th and 18th centuries, drawing from the work of philosophers such as Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Cavendish, du Chatelet, Conway, and Malebranche. Questions to be considered may include: What can we know about the world? What roles do reason and sensation play in knowledge? How is the mind related to the body? How are thought and perception related?
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:a minimum of six PHL/CPHL courses, which must include PHL 403 or PHL 708
  • PHL 507 - Ethics and Disability
    Course DescriptionThe life circumstances of disabled people are shaped by powerful ideological forces rooted in moral and political philosophy. This course introduces important intellectual traditions underpinning the human quest for justice. From this base, students 'test out' various ethical approaches, grappling with fundamental questions: How shall we be guided in approaching new reproductive technology, end-of-life decisions and asymmetrical relations of care? Are there limits to individual autonomy? How shall we distribute health care and social resources?
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Antirequisites:DST 507
  • PHL 508 - The Empiricists
    Course DescriptionThis course traces themes in the epistemology and metaphysics of influential philosophers of the empiricist movement of the 17th and 18th centuries. Rejecting tenets of rationalism and spurred by the success of the new empirical sciences, these thinkers sought to ground factual and metaphysical knowledge in sensory experience. Topics include the nature and scope of knowledge, realism, idealism, naturalism, and skepticism. Other topics may include the nature of causation, personal identity, and free will.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:a minimum of six PHL/CPHL courses, which must include PHL 403 or PHL 708
  • PHL 509 - Bioethics
    Course DescriptionRecent advances in biomedical sciences have raised a host of ethical concerns involving the sanctity and quality of life, fairness, equality, and autonomy. New and revolutionary developments call for legislative reform and policies designed to keep research and its applications within appropriate boundaries. This course examines issues such as cloning, assisted reproduction, genetic screening, gene therapy, organ donation, and resource allocation within a framework of moral principles and contemporary debate. PHL 509 is not available for credit to students who choose PHL 302.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Liberal Studies:UL
    Antirequisites:PHL 302
  • PHL 511 - Kant
    Course DescriptionImmanuel Kant (1724-1804) is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in modern philosophy. His theoretical philosophy sought to bridge the empiricist and the rationalist movements. His practical philosophy laid the groundwork for modern ethical theories. This course will survey themes such as: the nature of space and time, appearance and reality, causation, free will and determinism, the nature of moral obligation, the relation between freedom and autonomy, and the relation between virtue and happiness.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:a minimum of six PHL/CPHL courses, which must include PHL 403 or PHL 708
  • PHL 512 - Philosophy of the Emotions
    Course DescriptionThis course will ask "what are emotions?" and explore how answers to this question might challenge longstanding ideas about the nature of selfhood, what it means to be free, how we are ethically, existentially and ontologically related to others, how the mind is related to the body, how emotions are related to other feelings, beliefs, and desires, or to expressive acts, as well as to reason and how we acquire truths.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:a minimum of six PHL/CPHL courses
  • PHL 513 - Phenomenology
    Course DescriptionThis course introduces students to the methods and central theses of phenomenology, one of the most important philosophical movements of the 20th Century. Some of the typical issues to be studied include: the distinction between reflective and lived experience, the nature of perception and embodied experience, the intersubjective construction of meaning, the breakdown of the subject/object dualism, and the temporal structure of human reality. Authors studied may include Husserl, Bergson, Heidegger, Sartre and Merleau-Ponty.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:a minimum of six PHL/CPHL courses, which must include PHL 403 or PHL 708
  • PHL 514 - Mind and Agency
    Course DescriptionThis course will examine philosophical attempts to understand the nature of human agency. It will consider traditional accounts of freedom of the will, of the relations between theoretical and practical reason, of what it is to do something intentionally or on purpose, and of whether human freedom is possible in a physical world governed by deterministic natural laws. The readings may include both historical and contemporary works in both the analytic and continental traditions.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:a minimum of six PHL/CPHL courses
  • PHL 515 - Topics in Metaphysics and Epistemology
    Course DescriptionThis course will consider special topics concerning the nature of reality and our knowledge of it. Topics will vary, but may include: Realism and alternatives; skepticism; causation; causal accounts of knowledge; the possibility of truth in ethics; modal knowledge claims; reliabilism and justified true belief accounts of knowledge; new conceptions of experience. Readings may be drawn from both continental and analytic traditions.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:a minimum of six PHL/CPHL courses
  • PHL 516 - Foundations of Analytic Philosophy
    Course DescriptionThe development of formal logic at the turn of the 20th century promoted a certain philosophical style and method known as "analytic philosophy." Its proponents sought greater clarity and rigour than they found in traditional metaphysics, and brought to philosophy a new focus on language. The course examines works by such major figures as Frege, Russell, G.E. Moore, Wittgenstein, and the logical positivists, as well as their critics.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
  • PHL 517 - Special Topics
    Course DescriptionThis course provides an opportunity for in-depth study of a particular topic, concept, book or the work of particular author (whether historical or contemporary) that is not addressed in the same depth elsewhere in the Philosophy program. Course content will vary each time the course is offered, and will be posted the term prior to the course running.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:a minimum of six PHL/CPHL courses
  • PHL 520 - Social and Political Philosophy
    Course DescriptionWhat is power, and who really holds it in our society? Is a government's power over us legitimate, and what are its proper limits? Do modern liberal democracies really succeed in giving power to ordinary people? When is it right for citizens to rebel against the powers that be? Such questions and others will be addressed by way of a study of some of the classic works in social and political philosophy.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Liberal Studies:UL
  • PHL 521 - Personal Identity East and West
    Course DescriptionQuestions surrounding personal identity or the "self" are central to the philosophical traditions of India and Tibet, the West, and contemporary cognitive scientists. A fruitful cross-cultural dialogue concerning the self, subjectivity, and consciousness is emerging. In this course, we examine some of the basic issues and debates through a close reading of a series of papers from leading philosophical scholars of India and Tibet as well as prominent Western philosophers of mind and phenomenologists.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Liberal Studies:UL
  • PHL 522 - Philosophy and Death
    Course DescriptionDeath and human mortality have been central philosophical topics since ancient times. This course deals with philosophical reflections about the nature of death and our knowledge of it. Questions to be considered may include: What is death? Are there reasons for thinking we have immortal souls? Would immortality be desirable? Are there reasons for thinking we could survive death? Is death a bad thing for the person who dies? Is it rational to fear death?
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Liberal Studies:UL
  • PHL 535 - Introduction to Indigenous Philosophy
    Course DescriptionThis course is an introduction to the wide variety of Indigenous philosophical viewpoints. Beginning with the Creation Stories which underlie the fundamental beliefs of Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe peoples, students will examine concepts and practices such as reciprocity, traditional medicines, and storytelling. Indigenous decolonial thought, contemporary philosophy, and political philosophy will be explored within the context of the wider philosophical canon, while addressing contemporary issues related to land, language, and culture.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
  • PHL 544 - Feminist Philosophy
    Course DescriptionThis course takes up central concepts and debates in classic and contemporary feminist philosophy by examining its history and its diverse approaches and methodologies (e.g. liberal, radical, intersectional, Marxist, de-colonial, Indigenous, and psychoanalytic). The aim of the course is to critically analyze the relationship between feminist approaches and philosophy, knowledge production, and social change within national and transnational contexts, exploring such themes as sex, sexuality, gender, sexual difference, domination, violence, power, and liberation.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Liberal Studies:UL
  • PHL 547 - Jewish Philosophy
    Course DescriptionThis course introduces a selection of major texts and themes in Jewish philosophy. The focus may be on classical (i.e., Philo of Alexandria, Saadia Gaon), medieval (i.e., Maimonides, Judah Halevi) or Enlightenment and modern figures (i.e., Spinoza, Mendelssohn, Buber, Levinas). Questions may include the relationship between creation and eternity, revelation, prophecy and reason, religion and politics, divine command and morality, and the historical continuities and ruptures within Jewish thought.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
  • PHL 550 - Knowledge, Truth and Belief
    Course DescriptionDo we know anything? If so, what do we know, and how do we know it? What is the difference between knowledge and mere belief or opinion? How can we tell if our beliefs are justified? What makes some beliefs true, and others false? Epistemology - the study of knowledge - is the branch of philosophy concerned with such questions. This course explores these issues by examining some important contributions to the field, both historical and contemporary.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Liberal Studies:UL
  • PHL 551 - Metaphysics
    Course DescriptionThis course is an introduction to philosophical accounts of the fundamental structure and organization of reality. Questions to be considered may include: Why does the universe exist? What are space and time? Is the past as real as the present? Are future events fated to happen? How is change possible? Are there other universes besides the one we live in? Criticisms of philosophical attempts to answer these questions will also be discussed.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Liberal Studies:UL
  • PHL 552 - Philosophy of Natural Science
    Course DescriptionScience is a cornerstone of modern civilization, a method of inquiry with tremendous prestige and far-reaching effects. This course examines philosophical attempts to understand the fundamental nature of science. Topics may include: Is there a scientific method? Is science essentially rational? Does science reveal the truth about nature? What role do values play in science? Are there things that science cannot explain? Is science an expression of one particular culture, or is it somehow universal?
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Liberal Studies:UL
  • PHL 561 - Philosophy of Social Science
    Course DescriptionThis course explores philosophical issues concerning the methodology, history, aims and status of the social sciences, such as: Are there laws governing human behaviour? Do social groups have a reality and agency in their own right, beyond that of the individuals that comprise them? What is the relation between the social and natural sciences? How should we understand social norms? Are objectivity and political neutrality possible, or desirable, in the social sciences?
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Liberal Studies:UL
  • PHL 570 - Black Political Thought
    Course DescriptionThis course explores prominent themes and issues in Black political thought since the 19th century, informed by the experience of imperialism, colonialism, slavery, and systemic racism, as well as a rich tradition of Black resistance to injustice and oppression. Topics may include equality, freedom, identity, justice, violence, the struggle for civil rights, prison abolitionism, intersectionality, policing, necropolitics, Black feminism and critical race theory. Authors will be selected from Africa, North America, and the Caribbean.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
  • PHL 580 - Intermediate Logic
    Course DescriptionThis course examines first-order logic, including basic metalogical results such as soundness and completeness. There will be an introduction to basic set theory and metalogic. Topics may include the Loewenheim-Skolem theorems for first-order logic and Gödel’s incompleteness theorems.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:PHL 212
  • PHL 585 - Violent Conflict and Reconciliation
    Course DescriptionThis course is about remaking a world once it has been unmade by violent conflict. We will explore the nature and effects of historical and contemporary violent conflict, as well as the political, legal, global and community-based strategies implemented to transform or resolve it. Topics may include: war and peace; violence and its role in emancipatory struggles; historical justice and reconciliation; the work of mourning, trauma and healing; political apologies and forgiveness.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
  • PHL 600 - Classic Readings in Analytic Philosophy
    Course DescriptionThis course will focus on a selection of some of the most influential writings in 20th century analytic philosophy by authors such as Anscombe, Austin, Ayer, Carnap, Davidson, Frege, Kripke, Lewis, GE Moore, Rorty, Russell, Quine, and Sellars.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:Minimum of six PHL/CPHL courses, which must include PHL 403 or PHL 708
  • PHL 601 - Classic Readings Continental Philosophy
    Course DescriptionThis seminar provides students an opportunity for an in-depth study of a specific topic or figure in continental philosophy. Course content varies according to the instructor's research interests and expertise, but could include: philosophy of difference, biopolitics, religion and secularization, embodiment, dialectics, the nature of temporality and historicity, and the role of the aesthetic.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:a minimum of six PHL/CPHL courses, which must include PHL 403 or PHL 708
  • PHL 603 - Fundamentals of Ethics
    Course DescriptionThis course explores fundamental questions about ethics. Possible questions include: Is ethics somehow relative to cultures or individuals? Or might some ethical truths be timelessly true, regardless of people's beliefs? Is ethics based on religious or spiritual truths? Must we do what's right even if we don't want to? Can it ever be rational to act unethically? Is ethics a product of evolution, and if so, should this undermine our commitment to ethics?
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Liberal Studies:UL
    Prerequisites:PHL 306 or PHL 404 or PHL 406 or PHL 503 or PHL 612
  • PHL 605 - Existentialism
    Course DescriptionFor existentialists, freedom is not a given, but something to achieve. Reading authors like Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Sartre, Beauvoir and Heidegger, we'll ask what aspects of the human condition tend to thwart true freedom: Self-deception? Social norms or religious codes? Anxiety in confronting death? Longing for absolute justification for life's meaning? Alienation arising from an overestimation of reason or technology? We'll also consider what is required for authenticity, responsibility, freedom, and, possibly, the meaning of faith.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Liberal Studies:UL
  • PHL 606 - Philosophy of Love and Sex
    Course DescriptionThis course explores historical and contemporary philosophical perspectives on love and sex. Themes may include the nature of erotic love and friendship; monogamy and its alternatives; the relationship between love and sexual desire; the experience of lust, jealousy, and heartbreak; the ethics and influence of porn; the politics of heteronormativity and gender binarism; and sex technology.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Liberal Studies:UL
  • PHL 607 - Contemporary Continental Philosophy
    Course DescriptionThis course explores some of the major thinkers and themes emerging in contemporary continental philosophy, which can include recent developments in phenomenology, feminism, Marxism, deconstruction, psychoanalytic theory, post-colonialism, and critical theory. Topics may include technology and its sociopolitical effects, subjectivity, community, the nature of social and political life, challenges to humanism, global crisis, and the limits of philosophy.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:A minimum of six PHL courses
    Antirequisites:PHL 553
  • PHL 611 - Philosophy of Mind
    Course DescriptionThrough both classical and contemporary texts this course will examine selected issues regarding human (and other) minds, such as: How are mind and brain related? What is consciousness? How are thought and language related? Can, or could, computers think? Do non-human animals think? Can the mind be understood as a product of natural selection?
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Liberal Studies:UL
  • PHL 612 - Philosophy of Law
    Course DescriptionWhat is law? What makes something a legal norm? Should citizens always obey the law? What is the relationship between law and morality? This course will examine diverse perspectives on law, such as natural law, legal positivism, feminist legal theory, critical race theory, and other critical theories, focusing on debates over the legal regulation of contested social practices. Themes to be covered include: equality, liberty, expression, and religious rights, as well as legal interpretation.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Liberal Studies:UL
  • PHL 614 - Philosophy of Human Rights
    Course DescriptionAre human rights universal? How are human rights negotiated across cultural differences? Have civil and political rights been privileged over social and economic rights? What happens when basic rights conflict? Themes covered may include the relationship of the individual to the state and the role of the media. This course critically examines the works of contemporary philosophers and their diverse accounts of human rights, and critiques including the perspectives of cultural relativism and feminist theory.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Liberal Studies:UL
  • PHL 622 - Classical Arabic Philosophy
    Course DescriptionWhen Islam spread throughout a region spanning from Spain to India, Islamic culture absorbed and transformed a wide array of philosophical traditions, including Ancient Greek, Persian, and Indian thought. This course covers philosophers writing in Arabic from the 9th to the 12th c. CE, such as Al-Farabi, Avicenna, Al-Ghazali, Ibn Tufayl, Maimonides, and Averroes. Topics may include logic and semantics, conceptions of the soul, causation and creation, essence and existence, or political and social thought.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Liberal Studies:UL
  • PHL 630 - Metaethics
    Course DescriptionThis course explores the metaphysics, semantics, and epistemology of morality. Possible questions include the following: Are there moral facts and, if so, are they relative to individuals or society? Or, might morality somehow be objective? Can moral statements be true or false, or is moral discourse a matter of expressing our emotions? Is it possible for us to know anything about morality, and if so, how do we accomplish this? Through reason? Emotion? Intuition?
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:a minimum of six PHL/CPHL courses, which must include PHL 404 or PHL 503
  • PHL 639 - Medieval Philosophy
    Course DescriptionThe 'Middle Ages' are an underappreciated but important and diverse time in the history of philosophy in the Judaic, Christian and Islamic traditions. Our aim will be to give a general conversancy in medieval philosophy and its cultural context. This course will primarily focus on the Western, Latin tradition. It may focus on topics such as reason and faith, the problem of universals, the existence of God, or the relation between church and state.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Liberal Studies:UL
  • PHL 642 - Psychoanalysis
    Course DescriptionThis course is an introduction to psychoanalysis as theory and practice. Examining the texts of major thinkers such as Freud, Lacan, Kristeva, and Klein, the course will review and analyze the history, development, context, and critiques of psychoanalysis. Students will be introduced to the psychoanalytic model of the psyche and explore such themes as the unconscious, repression, fetishism, dreams, trauma, sexuality, mourning and melancholia, attachment, anxiety, and sociopolitical phenomena such as racism, homophobia, and misogyny.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:a minimum of six PHL/CPHL courses
  • PHL 648 - Philosophy and Literature
    Course DescriptionThis course explores some of the rich points of intersection between philosophy and literature. Topics to be addressed may include: the relationship between literature and truth; questions concerning the nature and limits of literary interpretation and authorship; the relationship between literature, ethics, and politics; and whether literary writing can express aspects of reality or of human experience that cannot be captured in standard conceptual or analytic writing.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Liberal Studies:UL
  • PHL 650 - Beyond Classical Logic
    Course DescriptionThis course explores non-classical logics and extensions to classical logic. Potential topic to be explored include: modal logic, higher-order logic, the logic of conditionals, many-valued logic, fuzzy logic, supervaluationism, intuitionist logic, and relevance logic. The course may also ask how the notion of entailment is best interpreted in such systems. Students are expected to already have a familiarity with classical propositional and first-order logic.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:PHL 212 or MTH 110 or MTH 714
  • PHL 661 - Marx, Nietzsche and Freud
    Course DescriptionKarl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche and Sigmund Freud have been referred to as the 'masters of suspicion.' These late nineteenth and early twentieth-century thinkers examined the reasons that people fall prey to forms of mystification, and sought to lift the veil from our eyes so as to emancipate us from domination and repression. Some of the key topics to be examined include repression, alienation, commodity fetishism, revolution, nihilism, genealogy and the unconscious.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Liberal Studies:UL
    Prerequisites:one PHL course
  • PHL 675 - Hannah Arendt
    Course DescriptionOne of the twentieth century’s most influential political thinkers, Hannah Arendt analyzed the crises of her time, including fascism, colonialism, imperialism, totalitarianism, anti-Semitism, and post-war migration. She also grappled with timeless philosophical questions concerning the nature of evil, the meaning of a life, responsibility and judgment, and what it means to think. This course will explore some of these themes with a view to their contemporary relevance.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:a minimum of six PHL courses
  • PHL 700 - Meta-Philosophy
    Course DescriptionMeta-philosophy is a critical reflection on the nature of philosophical activity. In this course students will examine and analyze the methods, aims and assumptions of philosophy as an academic discipline, addressing such questions as: What is philosophy and what is it for? What methods, styles and forms make a work philosophical? Have the methods philosophers used changed over time? What are the skills required to do philosophy and how are these applied in everyday life?
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:Minimum of six PHL courses, including either PHL 503 or PHL 708
  • PHL 707 - Plato
    Course DescriptionAs the student of Socrates and the teacher of Aristotle, Plato is the founder of western philosophy as we know it. His dialogues cover a wide range of topics, including language, knowledge and self-knowledge, philosophy of mind, cosmology, metaphysics, ethics and virtue, politics, rhetoric, and education. This course will examine one such dialogue, or a selection from a few dialogues, in depth and detail.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:Minimum of six PHL/CPHL courses
  • PHL 708 - Early Modern Philosophy
    Course DescriptionThis course examines the foundations of modern philosophy in the two dominant traditions of the 17th and 18th century: rationalism and empiricism. The philosophers studied include Descartes, Hume and Kant, and a selection of their contemporaries, e.g. Berkeley, Cavendish, du Chatelet, Conway, Leibniz, Locke, Malebranche, Reid, Shepherd, Spinoza. Topics may include the foundations and limits of knowledge, the nature of reality, skepticism, causation, the mind-body relation, person-hood, free will, good and evil, passions and emotions.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Liberal Studies:UL
    Antirequisites:PHL 403
  • PHL 709 - Religion, Science and Philosophy
    Course DescriptionThe physical sciences have contributed to philosophical debates regarding the apparent conflict between religious and scientific outlooks. In particular, religion and science seem to suggest different accounts of human nature, the universe, and our place in it. This course is concerned with issues such as: the basis for religious and scientific claims, nature and intelligent design, causality and free-will, and the emergence of mind.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Liberal Studies:UL
  • PHL 710 - Philosophy and Film
    Course DescriptionThis course examines the medium of film from several philosophical perspectives. Questions to be considered may include: What distinguishes film from other mass media and art forms? Do technical developments alter the definition of film? Is there a language of film? What can film teach us about the nature of perception? Does film contain an inherent gender bias? Has film created a captive audience, or is it the truly democratic art form?
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Liberal Studies:UL
  • PHL 711 - Language, Meaning and Truth
    Course DescriptionThis course examines central topics regarding the nature of language, such as: What makes our utterances have the meanings they do? Is truth a social/cultural construction or in some way relative to one's social location? Does language have rules and, if so, what explains them? How does language influence our conception of the world? Do non-human animals have language? How and what do metaphors communicate?
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:Minimum of six PHL/CPHL courses
  • PHL 714 - Philosophy of Biology
    Course DescriptionThis course explores philosophical questions arising from the biological sciences. Topics may include: the status of biology as an empirical science, the existence of biological laws, the existence of design in nature, the nature of species, and the possibility of 'reducing' biology to physics. The course may also explore possible relations between evolutionary theory and human culture and ethics.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:Minimum of six PHL/CPHL courses
  • PHL 718 - Advanced Topics in Ethics
    Course DescriptionThis course may investigate one or more figures, perspectives, or problems in historical or contemporary theoretical or applied ethics. Possible topics include the nature of practical reason and its relation to emotions and social life; the metaphysical status of moral values and/or the epistemological status of moral intuitions and judgments; or challenges to modern ethics from the revival of virtue ethics or the ethics of care, authenticity, or ambiguity.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:a minimum of six PHL/CPHL courses, which must include PHL 404 or PHL 503
  • PHL 732 - Topics in Political Philosophy
    Course DescriptionThis course will investigate one or more major figures, historical periods or critical moments in political philosophy depending on the instructor's interests. Examples of possible topics include the relation between reason and force, the constitution of a well-ordered society, the struggle for freedom, the nature of political community, the political conditions and effects of violence against women, and the legacies of colonialism.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:a minimum of six PHL/CPHL courses, which must include PHL 405
  • PHL 752 - German Idealism
    Course DescriptionKant's revolutionary Transcendental Idealism provoked a remarkable new wave of philosophical activity in Germany in the late 18th and early 19th Centuries. Thinkers like Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel sought to advance, extend, and transcend Kant's idealistic conceptions of nature and subjectivity, and in doing so they each developed formidable and influential new philosophical systems of their own. This course focuses on the work of one or more of these post-Kantian Idealists.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:a minimum of six PHL/CPHL courses, which must include PHL 403 or PHL 708
  • PHL 757 - Major Figures in Western Philosophy
    Course DescriptionThis course provides a special opportunity for students to engage in an in-depth, sustained study of one of the major thinkers of the Western philosophical tradition whose work is not the central focus in other philosophy courses. Examples include Anscombe, Augustine, Beauvoir, Davidson, Derrida, Foucault, Kristeva, Nussbaum, Spinoza, or Wittgenstein.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:a minimum of six PHL/CPHL courses
  • PHL 758 - Major Figures in Eastern Philosophy
    Course DescriptionThis course provides a special opportunity for students to engage in an in-depth, sustained study of one of the major thinkers of an Eastern philosophical tradition whose work has not been the central focus in other philosophy courses. Examples include Nagarjuna, Vasubandhu, Candrakirti, Vastyayana, Sankara, Tsongkhapa, Laozi, Confucius, and Dogen.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:6 PHL courses, one of which must be PHL 201 or PHL 521
  • PHL 770 - Law and Rights
    Course DescriptionThis course situates current debates about rights and their relations to law in historical context. Readings include classic and contemporary texts by philosophers offering diverse definitions, debating meanings and implications, and illuminating intersections between different types of rights. Questions discussed may include: Are rights universal, or relative, or particular? Are rights absolute, or qualified? Are rights natural, grounded in deliberation, or constructed through discourse? How do human, legal, moral, political and social rights differ, and why?
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:minimum of six PHL/CPHL courses
  • PHL 802 - Project in Applied Philosophy
    Course DescriptionStudents will complete an independent project involving the application of the philosophical methods/conclusions they have learned in their program to a contemporary social issue or problem. In the seminar, students will plan and execute their project under the guidance of the instructor and in dialogue with other students. At the end of the course they will present their work in a public forum.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:Minimum of five PHL courses
    Custom Requisites:Available only to Philosophy, Philosophy-English, Philosophy-History, and Arts and Contemporary Studies Philosophy option students.
  • PHL 803 - Philosophy Engaging Communities
    Course DescriptionPhilosophical questions appeal to children, youth and adults from all walks of life. In this course, students will develop the skills and philosophical insights required for engaging communities beyond the university in philosophical learning. Students will learn by examining texts on the nature, means and ends of philosophical education; participating in workshops on facilitating philosophical learning; and engaging various communities (including at-risk children and youth ages 5-17, homeless youth, prisoners, and seniors) in philosophical discussion.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:Minimum of five PHL courses
    Custom Requisites:Available only to Philosophy, Philosophy-English, Philosophy-History, and Arts and Contemporary Studies Philosophy option students.
  • PHL 810 - Philosophy of Cinema
    Course DescriptionThis course is a philosophical exploration of the art of cinema. It focuses on a range of auteurs (directors) and styles, as well as debates within film aesthetics. Topics may include the following: forms, genre theory, cinematic techniques, memory, world cinema, concern with modernity, visuality and temporality, reflexivity, criminality, and gender. Directors may include Murnau, Lang, Dreyer, Renoir, Kurosawa, Welles, Tarkovsky, Kiarostami, Haneke, and Breillat. Theorists may include: Arnheim, Bazin, Kracauer, Cavell, Rothman, and Carroll.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
  • PHL 900 - Senior Philosophy Seminar
    Course DescriptionThis senior seminar provides Philosophy and ACS (Philosophy Option) students the opportunity to develop advanced research, presentation and writing skills in a specialized field of Philosophy. Students will normally be required to write a major paper. Course content varies according to the instructor's research interests and expertise.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:a minimum of six PHL/CPHL courses
  • PHL 910 - Senior Philosophy Seminar
    Course DescriptionThis senior seminar provides Philosophy and ACS (Philosophy Option) students the opportunity to develop advanced research, presentation and writing skills in a specialized field of Philosophy. Students will normally be required to write a major paper. Course content varies according to the instructor's research interests and expertise.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:a minimum of six PHL/CPHL courses
  • PHL 923 - Philosophy of Religion II
    Course DescriptionThis course offers students an opportunity for advanced study of what philosophers have had to say about religion. Readings will be drawn from influential historical philosophers, and from contemporary philosophers. Some topics will pertain to theistic religions, some to non-theistic religions, and others to both. Topics may include: religious language; ethics and the meaning of life; the concept of the Sacred; the relationship between religious beliefs and evidence; and puzzles about the characteristics of God.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Liberal Studies:UL
    Prerequisites:PHL 110 or PHL 709
  • PHL 950 - Directed Research Course
    Course DescriptionThis course offers senior students the opportunity for advanced and independent study with a faculty member in the Philosophy Department. Topics are determined jointly by the student and the professor.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:A minimum of 25 courses, including six PHL courses, and a minimum CGPA of 3.33