This non-essay course introduces conceptual issues about science: What distinguishes science from non-science? Are there limits to what science can or should explain? What does science tell us about reality? What is the relationship between science and religion? What is the role and value of science in a democratic society? 

Many problems faced by individuals and societies lie at the intersection of ethics, law, and politics. This course will consider issues that can be analyzed along ethical, legal, and/or political lines, with a focus on understanding the differences between moral, legal, and political arguments and solutions to contemporary societal problems.  

What exists? Is knowledge possible? How should we live? Does anything matter? Introducing Philosophy will acquaint students with various attempts by historical and contemporary philosophers to argue for answers to these and similar questions. Lectures will focus on fairly and sympathetically identifying, analyzing, and evaluating these arguments.  

Antirequisite(s): Philosophy 1000E, Philosophy 1020, Philosophy 1022E, Philosophy 1100E, Philosophy 1250F/G, Philosophy 1300E, Philosophy 1350F/G.  

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

Antirequisite(s): Philosophy 1000E, Philosophy 1200.  

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

Antirequisite(s): Philosophy 2250, Philosophy 2252W/X, Computer Science 2209A/B. 

An evaluation of sciences attempting to understand the nature of the mind and its place in the physical world. Topics may include: phrenology & localization theory, physiology, neuroanatomy, gestalt psychology, experimental psychology, evolutionary psychology, psychophysics, psychoanalysis, behaviorism, cognitive psychology, neuropsychology, intelligence testing and the nature of consciousness. 

What is evil and why does it exist in the world? Is there more pain in life than pleasure, and is anyone truly happy? Is this even the worst of all possible worlds? In this course, we will consider responses to these questions throughout the history of modern philosophy. 

The meaning and moral importance of death will be explored through a series of questions: What is death? Is death a bad thing? Do people survive death? What do we mean when we say that someone is "dying"? Should knowledge of death change the way we live our lives?  

Through social media, computer gaming, and virtual communities, we spend a considerable portion of our lives in the digital world. What moral considerations ought to guide our conduct as digital citizens? This class will consider the ethics of life online through a study of moral theory and ethical problems.  

A study of some main problems in legal philosophy. Emphasis is given to actual law, e.g. criminal law and contracts, as a background to questions of law's nature. Specimen topics: police powers in Canada, contractual obligation, insanity defence, judicial reasoning and discretion, civil liberties, legal responsibility, natural law and legal positivism.  

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

Antirequisite(s): The former Philosophy 2010F/G, the former Philosophy 3010F/G.  

Bias, bullshit, and bluster permeate many facets of contemporary life. In this course, students will learn to identify these phenomena in a range of contexts, including science, politics, and journalism, while developing a nuanced understanding of their nature and their ethical and political significance.  

A critical examination of key works of Greek philosophers with major emphasis on Plato and Aristotle.  

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

An introduction to philosophy of mind, drawing on contemporary and historical sources. Topics may include: knowledge of other minds; free will; personal identity; what makes something mental; dualism and materialism; survival after death.  

An introduction to the main problems of epistemology. Specimen topics include: the nature of human knowledge and belief, perception, evidence, truth and confirmation.  

This course addresses the most important questions in metaphysics: What is a human being? Do we have free will? How does the mind relate to the body? In what respect do things persist through change? Are there abstract objects? What is the nature of space, time, and causality? 

This course explores philosophical perspectives on classical yoga, especially Patañjali’s Yogasutra, and the development of modern postural yoga. Through lectures, discussions, and guided practices, students explore how these traditions illuminate key philosophical ideas – including freedom, self, perception, reality, ethics, language, and aesthetics – while gaining both conceptual understanding and experiential insight.  

Extra Information: Blended (2 hours in-person, 1 hour online). 

A first introduction focusing on ancient Buddhism, the course will consider how being, ethics and knowledge connect to salvation from suffering. It will concentrate on Buddhism as philosophy, rather than as a religious practice. As such, the doctrines of the Buddha and his followers will be explained sympathetically but assessed critically.  

Critical study of the nature and justification of ethical and value judgements, with an analysis of key concepts and a survey of the main contemporary theories.  

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

An examination of key concepts in health care ethics, such as respect for patient autonomy, medical paternalism, patient competence, justice in health care, "death with dignity," "sanctity of life," commodifying human life. Goals are to understand these ideas and how to apply them to practical issues in health care.  

Antirequisite(s): Health Sciences 2610F/G.  

A study of ethical issues in media, including such topics as: the reasonable limits of free expression; intellectual property and the public domain; official secrets and access to information; regulating online content; commercial databases and informational privacy; cameras in the courtroom; plagiarism and piracy; defamation; hactivism and the hacker ethic.  

This course is a survey of Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophical writings, including texts from his early, middle, and late periods.  

The topic for this course—political philosophy in England, 1645-1652—may seem very narrow. But this was a tumultuous time in English political history, and a similarly tumultuous time in English political philosophy. We will survey the key works of political philosophy written in these years, including Hobbes’s Leviathan and essays by Hobbes’s theocratic critic Robert Filmer, the radical egalitarian Parliamentarians known as the Levellers, and the even more radically egalitarian and commune-dwelling Diggers. Many important and enduring ideas and themes in subsequent English and European political philosophy were first developed in these few years; we will examine these ideas when they were new and bold (as many remain).

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

This course will explore select topics in contemporary philosophy of science, such as scientific realism and anti-realism, the nature of scientific laws, empiricism in the philosophy of science, scientific objectivity, social epistemology, scientific models, and science and values. The focus will be on understanding rival positions on these topics.  

Prerequisite(s): Philosophy 2300F/G, or permission of the department. 

Problems in contemporary theory of knowledge. Topics may include epistemic justification, modern skepticism, foundationalism and coherentism, internalism and externalism, ethics of belief, epistemic probability, testimony and social dimensions of knowledge.  

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

Antirequisite(s): Philosophy 3700E. 

 An introduction to ethical issues in human experimentation, covering ethical frameworks for research ethics, informed consent, confidentiality, benefit-harm analysis, participant selection, and vulnerable participants and communities. Special topics, such as randomized controlled trials, gene therapy trials, cluster randomized trials, and health policy and systems research may also be covered.  

A broadly-based study of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason and his related critical and pre-critical writings on physical, metaphysical and epistemological topics.  

An advanced treatment of a particular problem arising in the philosophy of language.  

A study of a selected topic in the philosophy of science. The topics dealt with vary from year to year. More detailed information concerning content and prerequisites may be obtained from the Department prior to registration.  

A critical study of contemporary feminist epistemology and philosophy of science, with discussion of feminist empiricism, standpoint, and postmodern positions, critiques of methodological essentialism, and proposals for integrating the consideration of contextual factors into theories of knowledge production and legitimation.  

Antirequisite(s): Philosophy 3910F/G.  

An intensive study of central themes in feminist ethics and social/political theory. Topics include: feminist critiques of classical and contemporary theories of moral agency, autonomy, and individualism; constructive proposals for feminist alternatives to the ethics of rights; arguments for contextualizing ethical and social/political theory.  

Antirequisite(s): Philosophy 3024F/G.