PhilosophyFaculty List
Program Director: W. Seager Email: philosophy-program-supervisor@utsc.utoronto.ca Guidelines for 1st year course selection Philosophy ProgramsSPECIALIST PROGRAM IN PHILOSOPHY (ARTS) Program Supervisor: W. Seager Email: philosophy-program-supervisor@utsc.utoronto.ca Students must complete at least 12.0 credits in Philosophy including PHLB50H3 Symbolic Logic I or PHLB55H3 Puzzles and Paradoxes, and at least 5.0 credits at the C- or D-level of which 1.0 must be at the D-level. MATC09H3 can be used as a Philosophy course for these purposes. Students are encouraged, though not required, to complete at least 0.5 credit as a reading course at the D-level. Note: PHLB99H3 Writing Philosophy, is strongly recommended for the Philosophy Specialist and Major programs and is important preparation for advanced C- and D-level studies in Philosophy. MAJOR PROGRAM IN PHILOSOPHY (ARTS)Program Supervisor: W. Seager Email: philosophy-program-supervisor@utsc.utoronto.ca Note: PHLB99H3 Writing Philosophy, is strongly recommended for the Philosophy Specialist and Major programs and is important preparation for advanced C- and D-level studies in Philosophy. Program Supervisor: W. Seager Email: philosophy-program-supervisor@utsc.utoronto.ca Philosophy CoursesPHLA10H3 Reason and Truth An introduction to philosophy focusing on issues of rationality, metaphysics and the theory of knowledge. Topics may include: the nature of mind, freedom, the existence of God, the nature and knowability of reality. These topics will generally be introduced through the study of key texts from the history of philosophy. Ethics is concerned with concrete questions about how we ought to treat one another as well as more general questions about how to justify our ethical beliefs. This course is an introduction that both presents basic theories of ethics and considers their application to contemporary moral problems. This course examines ethical issues raised by our actions and our policies for the environment. Do human beings stand in a moral relationship to the environment? Does the environment have moral value and do non-human animals have moral status? These fundamental questions underlie more specific contemporary issues such as sustainable development, alternative energy, and animal rights. An examination of challenges posed by the radical changes and developments in modern and contemporary art forms. For example, given the continuously exploding nature of art works, what do they have in common - what is it to be an artwork? This course examines some of the classic problems concerning literary texts, such as the nature of interpretation, questions about the power of literary works and their relationship to ethical thought, and problems posed by fictional works - how can we learn from works that are fictional and how can we experience genuine emotions from works that we know are fictional? An examination of contemporary or historical issues that force us to consider and articulate our values and commitments. The course will select issues from a range of possible topics, which may include globalization, medical ethics, war and terrorism, the role of government in a free society, equality and discrimination. An examination of philosophical issues in ethics, social theory, and theories of human nature as they bear on business. What moral obligations do businesses have? Can social or environmental costs and benefits be calculated in a way relevant to business decisions? Do political ideas have a role within business? What is the difference between right and wrong? What is 'the good life'? What is well-being? What is autonomy? These notions are central in ethical theory, law, bioethics, and in the popular imagination. In this course we will explore these concepts in greater depth, and then consider how our views about them shape our views about ethics. Ethics is concerned with right action - with questions of how we should treat one another. This course will focus on ethical questions that arise in the context of international, cross-cultural interactions with a particular focus on the interactions between the developed world and the developing world. This course is an examination of moral and legal problems in medical practice, in biomedical research, and in the development of health policy. Topics may include: concepts of health and disease, patients' rights, informed consent, allocation of scarce resources, euthanasia, risks and benefits in research and others. A discussion of right and rights, justice, legality, and related concepts. Particular topics may include: justifications for the legal enforcement of morality, particular ethical issues arising out of the intersection of law and morality, such as punishment, freedom of expression and censorship, autonomy and paternalism, constitutional protection of human rights. Philosophical issues about sex and sexual identity in the light of biological, psychological and ethical theories of sex and gender; the concept of gender; male and female sex roles; perverse sex; sexual liberation; love and sexuality. What is feminism? What is a woman? Or a man? Are gender relations natural or inevitable? Why do gender relations exist in virtually every society? How do gender relations intersect with other social relations, such as economic class, culture, race, sexual orientation, etc.? A philosophical study of the nature, practice and value of education. Major philosophical accounts of education will be examined. Topics to be considered may include: the nature, aims, and content of education, education and indoctrination, the role and justification of educational institutions, authority and freedom in the school. This course will introduce some important thinkers in political philosophy, such as Plato, Aristotle, Augustine and Aquinas. This course will introduce some important concepts of and thinkers in political philosophy from the history of political philosophy to the present. These may include Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, G.W.F. Hegel, John Stuart Mill, or Karl Marx. Topics discussed may include political and social justice, liberty and the criteria of good government. An examination of the nature of knowledge, and our ability to achieve it. Topics may include the question of whether any of our beliefs can be certain, the problem of scepticism, the scope and limits of human knowledge, the nature of perception, rationality, and theories of truth. A study of the views and approaches pioneered by such writers as Kierkegaard, Husserl, Jaspers, Heidegger and Sartre. Existentialism has had influence beyond philosophy, impacting theology, literature and psychotherapy. Characteristic topics include the nature of the self and its relations to the world and society, self-deception, and freedom of choice. A survey of some main themes and figures of ancient philosophical thought, concentrating on Plato and Aristotle. Topics include the ultimate nature of reality, knowledge, and the relationship between happiness and virtue. For many philosophers "God" is a central concept because it signifies the fundamental cause of the universe, even Nature as a whole. Is God just this first cause, or also a benevolent agent? Can we have an idea of God? Can we prove the existence of God? Texts by Plato, Aristotle, Anselm, Hobbes, Pascal, Spinoza, Leibniz, Hume, Kant, Nietzsche, Gödel. This course covers the major figures and themes in seventeenth and eighteenth century philosophy. Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Berkeley, and Hume will be covered. Metaphysical and epistemological themes will be emphasized. An introduction to formal, symbolic techniques of reasoning. Sentential logic and quantification theory (or predicate logic), including identity will be covered. The emphasis is on appreciation of and practice in techniques, for example, the formal analysis of English statements and arguments, and for construction of clear and rigorous proofs. Philosophy often begins with a puzzle or paradox. Zeno once convincingly argued that motion was impossible, but people continue to move. The "liar's paradox" seems to show that everything is both true and false, but that cannot be right. In this course, we will puzzle through these and related issues. A consideration of problems in metaphysics: the attempt to understand 'how everything fits together' in the most general sense of this phrase. Some issues typically covered include: the existence of God, the nature of time and space, the nature of mind and the problem of the freedom of the will. How are special science entities (treated by chemistry, biology, psychology) related lower-level, ultimately fundamental physical entities? Are higher-level entities "nothing over and above" or rather somehow "emergent" from lower-level entities? In this course we will identify and assess a variety of metaphysical options for understanding such intertheoretic relations. An examination of questions concerning the nature of mind. Philosophical questions considered may include: what is consciousness, what is the relation between the mind and the brain, how did the mind evolve and do animals have minds, what is thinking, what are feelings and emotions, and can machines have minds. A study of the hypotheses and theories that ground cognitive science. Fundamental questions include: what is a computational system and how can a physical system think and understand language? The course examines the functionalist theory of mind, the relationship between syntax and semantics, and the theory of interpretable formal systems. An exploration of theories which provide answers to the question 'What is a human being?', answers that might be summarized with catchphrases such as: 'Man is a rational animal,' 'Man is a political animal,' 'Man is inherently individual,' 'Man is inherently social,' etc. Authors studied are: Aristotle, Hobbes, Rousseau, Darwin, Marx, Freud and Sartre. Philosophical writing emphasizes clear reasoning. Students will learn to analyze texts, to discern and assess argument structure, and to develop techniques for writing a clear well-argued analysis of a subject matter. These key writing skills lie at the core of philosophical method and they are also applicable across subject areas and disciplines. This course is strongly recommended for philosophy specialists and majors, open to philosophy minors, and open to all other students by permission of the instructor. An exploration of some current issues concerning the various forms of art such as: the role of the museum, the loss of beauty and the death of art. Philosophers offer systematic theories of ethics: theories that simultaneously explain what ethics is, why it matters, and what it tells us to do. This course is a careful reading of classic philosophical texts by the major systematic thinkers in the Western tradition of ethics. Particular authors read may vary from instructor to instructor. Philosophical ethics simultaneously aims to explain what ethics is, why it matters, and what it tells us to do. This is what is meant by the phrase 'ethical theory.' In this class we will explore specific topics in ethical theory in some depth. Specific topics may vary with the instructor. Feminist philosophy includes both criticism of predominant approaches to philosophy that may be exclusionary for women and others, and the development of new approaches to various areas of philosophy. One or more topics in feminist philosophy will be discussed in some depth. Particular topics will vary with the instructor. A follow up to PHLB20H3. This course will consider one or two epistemological topics in depth, with an emphasis on class discussion. This course focuses on the thought of Plato and Aristotle, with some attention to the pre-Socratics and Hellenistic thinkers, including ancient atomists and the Stoics. In this course we study the major figures of early modern rationalism, Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz, with a particular emphasis on topics such as substance, knowledge and sense perception, the mind-body problem, and the existence and nature of God. In this course we study major figures of early modern empiricism, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, with a particular emphasis on topics such as substance, knowledge and sense perception, the mind-body problem, and the existence and nature of God. This course focuses on the thought of Immanuel Kant, making connections to some of Kant’s key predecessors such as Hume or Leibniz. The course will focus either on Kant’s metaphysics and epistemology, or his ethics, or his aesthetics. This course explores the foundation of Analytic Philosophy in the late 19th and early 20th century, concentrating on Frege, Russell, and Moore. Special attention paid to the discovery of mathematical logic, its motivations from and consequences for metaphysics and the philosophy of mind. After consolidating the material from Symbolic Logic I, we will introduce necessary background for metalogic, the study of the properties of logical systems. We will introduce set theory, historically developed in parallel to logic. We conclude with some basic metatheory of the propositional logic learned in Symbolic Logic I. What are numbers? Are they physical? Mental? Created by humans? How do we know anything about numbers, if we never see or touch them? What is mathematical truth? Such questions should concern mathematics students interested in the foundations of mathematics; and philosophy students, as a rich source of philosophical puzzlement. A follow up to PHLB60H3. This course will consider one or two metaphysical topics in depth, with an emphasis on class discussion. This course will consider one or two topics in the Philosophy of Science in depth, with an emphasis on class discussion. An examination of philosophical issues about language. Philosophical questions to be covered include: what is the relation between mind and language, what is involved in linguistic communication, is language an innate biological feature of human beings, how do words manage to refer to things, and what is meaning. Advance Issues in the Philosophy of Mind. For example, an examination of arguments for and against the idea that machines can be conscious, can think, or can feel. Topics may include: Turing's test of machine intelligence, the argument based on Gödel's theorem that there is an unbridgeable gulf between human minds and machine capabilities, Searle's Chinese Room thought experiment. Advanced topic(s) in Analytic Philosophy. Sample contemporary topics: realism/antirealism; truth; interrelations among metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of mind and of science. An examination of some central philosophical problems of contemporary political philosophy. This course will examine some contemporary debates in recent political philosophy. Topics discussed may include the nature of justice, liberty and the criteria of good government, and problems of social coordination. Advanced topics in the Philosophy of mind, such as an exploration of philosophical problems and theories of consciousness. Topics to be examined may include: the nature of consciousness and 'qualitative experience', the existence and nature of animal consciousness, the relation between consciousness and intentionality, as well as various philosophical theories of consciousness. This is an intensive seminar for students specializing and majoring in philosophy. The course will develop advanced philosophical skills by focusing on textual analysis, argumentative techniques, writing and oral presentation. The course also aims to foster a cohesive cohort among philosophy specialists and majors. Each year, the course will focus on a different topic drawn from the core areas of philosophy for its subject matter. This course is strongly recommended for Philosophy Specialist and Majors. This course offers an in-depth investigation into selected topics in moral philosophy. This course offers in-depth examination of the philosophical approach offered by one of the three principal Rationalist philosophers, Descartes, Spinoza or Leibniz. This course examines Analytic Philosophy in the mid-20th century, concentrating on Wittgenstein, Ramsey, Carnap, and Quine. Special attention paid to the metaphysical foundations of logic, and the nature of linguistic meaning, including the relations between "truth-conditional" and "verificationist" theories. Symbolic Logic deals with formal languages: you work inside formal proof systems, and also consider the "semantics", dealing with truth, of formal languages. Instead of working inside formal systems, Metalogic treats systems themselves as objects of study, from the outside. This seminar addresses core issues in the metaphysics of mind.Topics to be discussed may include the nature of persons and personal identity, whether physicalism is true, what is the relation of mind to reality in general, the nature of animal minds and the question of whether machines can possess minds. This course offers in-depth examination of selected contemporary theories and issues in philosophy of mind, such as theories of perception or of consciousness, and contemporary research examining whether minds must be embodied or embedded in a larger environment. These courses are intended for qualified students who wish to engage in advanced level work on a well-defined topic of their choice. These courses are only available with the prior arrangement of an instructor. PHLD91H3 Independent Study These courses are intended for qualified students who wish to engage in advanced level work on a well-defined topic of their choice. These courses are only available with the prior arrangement of an instructor. PHLD92H3 Independent Study These courses are intended for qualified students who wish to engage in advanced level work on a well-defined topic of their choice. These courses are only available with the prior arrangement of an instructor. PHLD93H3 Independent Study These courses are intended for qualified students who wish to engage in advanced level work on a well-defined topic of their choice. These courses are only available with the prior arrangement of an instructor. PHLD94H3 Independent Study These courses are intended for qualified students who wish to engage in advanced level work on a well-defined topic of their choice. These courses are only available with the prior arrangement of an instructor. PHLD95H3 Independent Study These courses are intended for qualified students who wish to engage in advanced level work on a well-defined topic of their choice. These courses are only available with the prior arrangement of an instructor. PHLD96H3 Independent Study These courses are intended for qualified students who wish to engage in advanced level work on a well-defined topic of their choice. These courses are only available with the prior arrangement of an instructor. PHLD97H3 Independent Study These courses are intended for qualified students who wish to engage in advanced level work on a well-defined topic of their choice. These courses are only available with the prior arrangement of an instructor. PHLD98H3 Independent Study These courses are intended for qualified students who wish to engage in advanced level work on a well-defined topic of their choice. These courses are only available with the prior arrangement of an instructor. PHLD99H3 Independent Study These courses are intended for qualified students who wish to engage in advanced level work on a well-defined topic of their choice. These courses are only available with the prior arrangement of an instructor. |
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