Course Offerings

*this course can be found in LORIS under the subject-heading "History & Philosophy of Science"

An introduction to central topics in the history and philosophy of science in Western culture up to the end of the 18th century, including discussion of the emergence, success and relative prestige of science; the concepts of progress and revolution; and the establishment and implementation of the Newtonian worldview in its social context.

Analysis and critical evaluation of key socio-political concepts: the state, civil society, power and authority, individual freedom, property, human rights, justice, democracy, liberalism, conservatism, authoritarianism versus totalitarianism. Ideas of theorists like Plato, Hobbes, Hegel, Marx, Rawls and others will be discussed.

An introductory study of a fundamental tool of rational thought: deductive logic. The basic concepts, principles, and techniques of formal logic are studied: valid and invalid arguments, the logical structure of statements and arguments, use of a symbolic language to represent arguments and symbolic techniques to facilitate their analysis and assessment.

An examination of one or more themes in existentialist thought. Topics to be investigated will include authenticity, anxiety, being and meaning.

**Please note that this course was previously titled, "The Quest for World Peace". If you have previously taken PP230 under that title, you will not receive additional credit for this one. Please speak to the undergraduate advisor if you have questions.

This course explores issues related to the ethics of war and peace. In includes discussions of just war, ‘the duty to protect’ innocent third parties, the moral claims of combatants and non-combatants, terrorism, civil war, revolution, war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, the ethics of post-war reconstruction and reconciliation (including the notion of political forgiveness), the concept of self-defence, the idea of ‘total war,’ the ethics of civil disobedience (violent and non-violent), arms races, and more. These and other issues will be explored against the background of more theoretical topics such as the limits of legitimate political authority, the problem of evil, and the problem of individual responsibility in collectives.

An introduction to modern philosophy, which will discuss its beginnings in the Renaissance and its development in the 17th and 18th centuries. Discussion will focus on thinkers such as Montaigne, Descartes, Hobbes, Spinoza, Hume, Rousseau and Kant. The rise of science, modernity, the Enlightenment, empiricism, rationalism and idealism will be possible topics for discussion.

A survey of themes in 20th century philosophy, including such movements as pragmatism, logical empiricism, ordinary language philosophy, analytic philosophy, phenomenology, hermeneutics, critical theory, deconstruction, and the bridging of the so called analytical/continental divide.

This course explores core questions about the nature and compatibility of freedom, determinism, and responsibility. We will examine competing accounts of compatibilism and incompatibilism, and explore such questions as whether or not freedom and responsibility require alternative possibilities. Our ultimate aim will be to clarify what is necessary for free will and responsibility.

This course will examine Søren Kierkegaard’s moral psychology as presented in his “psychological works” – The Concept of Anxiety and The Sickness Unto Death.  We will discuss the notion of anxiety in relation to innocence, freedom, guilt and the fall (Christian and romantic versions of the fall) in order to present Kierkegaard’s picture of the development of consciousness.  Following this we will examine his account of selfhood and ethics.  Kierkegaard sees the self as a synthesis of various elements (the infinite and finite, the temporal and eternal, freedom and necessity).  The question of whether a self is chosen or received will be explored.  We will also look at the development of the self through Kierkegaard’s famous ‘stages’ of existence.

A study of traditional and contemporary debates within personal identity theory. Topics may include: identity over time; psychological and physical views; reductionism; whether identity matters; animalism; the ontology of the self; practical identity and normative concerns.

This course engages problems that arise for human believers in social context—that is, in people's actual lives. We’ll study some key areas of social and political epistemology today: testimony, trust, and experts; epistemology of disagreement; pragmatic and moral encroachment; epistemic injustice, manipulation, and oppression.  

A critical exploration of physicalist attempts to explain the subjective features of conscious experience. Topics and theories discussed may include the knowledge argument, panprotopsychism, the possibility of zombies, inverted qualia, HOT theory and representationalism.

Some philosophers argue that none of us can truly be responsible for our actions, since free will is an illusion. But many other philosophers and most ordinary folk do believe that persons can be responsible for their actions. Which actions? Surely not all of them—if you are stronger than I, grab my arm and use it to punch out the Dean, surely I am not responsible for having knocked out the Dean. If you put arsenic in the sugar bowl and I offer it up, unknowingly, to a guest who wants to sweeten her iced tea, surely I am not responsible for poisoning my guest, even if I am causally linked to her poisoning.

In this class we will think about cases like this last one—the case where I, acting in ignorance, unknowingly poison my guest. When are persons responsible, or are they ever responsible, when they act in ignorance of some relevant fact? What about cases of moral (as opposed to factual) ignorance? Suppose that I think killing an innocent at the behest of my mob boss is showing loyalty and so morally laudable, not morally wrong. Can I be morally responsible for my own moral ignorance, and for acts that stem from such moral ignorance? Under what conditions, and why or why not? We will read mostly contemporary philosophers on this topic, that of the epistemic conditions on responsible action.

A study of historical and contemporary philosophical debates surrounding death and mortality.  Topics may include: the badness of death; the desirability of immortality and death’s contribution to the value of life; the rationality of fear of death; well-being in the face of mortality; grief; the survival of future generations.