The Humanities 1600-series is intended to provide an introduction to Humanities disciplines. These three-credit courses offered by the participating disciplines of Classics, History, Philosophy and Religious Studies are designed to acquaint beginning students with the methodologies typical of these disciplines and to familiarize them with the approaches taken, as well as the sorts of themes pursued and questions raised in these disciplines.

Note: The listing of a course in the calendar is not a guarantee that the course is offered every year.

Note: Students must obtain a grade of at least C- in all courses used to fulfill prerequisite requirements. Otherwise, written permission of the appropriate Department or Programme Coordinator must be obtained.

PHIL 1601 (3CR)
PLATO'S REPUBLIC
A study of Plato's The Republic can serve as an introduction to almost all the issues that are central to our western philosophical tradition. The problems of virtue (temperance, courage, wisdom), justice, order (social, political and cosmological), knowledge, the nature of the psyche, beauty, and of reality in general will all arise in the study of this text, providing a good basis for discussion.

PHIL 1611 (3CR)
SELF, SOCIETY AND FREEDOM
This course will examine various accounts given of 'the self' in the history of ideas. What values can be accorded to human beings are dependent upon our accounts of the nature of the self, especially in relations: social, political, intellectual, emotional. The main theme to be explored will revolve around the issue of whether freedom is anything more than an illusion formulated to control the population.

PHIL 1651 (3CR)
THE CHANGING IMAGE OF NATURE
Our intellectual heritage is laced with shifting and conflicting attitudes towards "Nature" which impact everything from how we can come to know about nature, scientifically, to ethical implications for how human beings relate to other natural beings. This course will use readings from the history of western philosophy, especially from the early modern era, to assess the extent to which we have inherited these convictions or developed alternatives to them. space added here

PHIL 2511 (3CR)
INTRODUCTORY PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
Successful science claims to give us knowledge of what exists in the universe, and it claims to explain why what happens in a given localized system happens. The italicized words in the last sentence indicate philosophical assumptions within science which this course will explore. Based on historical cases, philosophical interpretations will be compared from logical positivism to Kuhnian paradigms, and the most recent critiques from social constructivism and feminism.
Prereq: Three credits from Humanities 1600 Series; or permission of the Department.

PHIL 2611 (3CR)
INTRODUCTORY LOGIC I
A study of and exercise in the elementary forms of focussed thinking. Specific topics include the nature of categorical formulation, the techniques for distinguishing valid from invalid reasoning (deductive inference), and the principles violated in typical varieties of fallacious reasoning.
Prereq: Three credits from Humanities 1600 Series; or permission of Department.

PHIL 2621 (3CR)
INTRODUCTORY LOGIC II
A study of and exercise in more advanced forms of focused thinking. Specific topics include the Greek understanding of the basis and goal of learning (inductive inference) and the modern logical reinterpretation of deductive, inductive, and fallacious reasoning.
Prereq: PHIL 2611; or permission of the Department.

PHIL 2701 (3CR)
INTRODUCTORY ETHICS
An introduction to the history and philosophical problems of ethics in the western tradition. This will acquaint the student with a number of received traditions based on metaphysical, religious, rational, and pragmatic grounds, as well as introduce certain fundamental perennial problems of moral decision-making.
Prereq: Three credits from Humanities 1600 Series; or permission of the Department

PHIL 2801 (3CR)
INTRODUCTION TO METAPHYSICS
An introduction to the study of metaphysics understood broadly as the study of the fundamental nature of reality. This will include the study of various themes including the nature of substance, divinity, causation, appearance and reality, the one and the many, mind and matter, as they appear in the discussions of the world's great philosophers from Lao Tzu to Shankara, and from Aristotle to Bertrand Russell.
Prereq: Three credits from Humanities 1600 Series; or permission of the Department.

PHIL 3000 (6CR)
ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY
The issues which develop before and with Plato establish the framework for all subsequent philosophic reflection. This course will examine some of these issues as they appeared prior to Plato and will employ these "pre-Socratics" as an entry into Plato's philosophy. Subsequently, aspects of Aristotle's thought will be explored as alternatives to and developments of Plato's philosophy.
Prereq: Three credits from 2000-level Philosophy; or permission of the Department.

PHIL 3221 (3CR)
MODERN PHILOSOPHY: THE RATIONALIST TRADITION
An investigation of the leading seventeenth century continental thinkers who formulated the great a priori systems. The capacity and function of human reason fully to understand the world is a theme common to these thinkers, and constitutes one of the major concerns of the course, a concern balanced by investigation of why these systems have reached such diverse answers to the substantive issues of how the world is to be understood.
Prereq: Three credits from 2000-level Philosophy; or permission of the Department.

PHIL 3231 (3CR)
MODERN PHILOSOPHY: THE EMPIRICIST TRADITION
An investigation of the thought of the English language thinkers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. These authors, among whom are to be counted Locke, Berkeley and Hume, in part may be understood as reacting to the a priori tradition examined by Philosophy 3111. But they also make claims that are not merely reactive, and the extent to which one or more of them proposes a coherent interpretation of the extent and the limitations of human understanding will be investigated.
Prereq: Three credits from 2000-level Philosophy; or permission of the Department.

PHIL 3331 (3CR)
MODERN SOCIAL AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
An investigation of the early foundations of modern political liberalism with a special concentration on the concepts of the state of nature, autonomy, and social contract. Authors considered will include: Machiavelli, Hobbes, Hume, Spinoza, Locke, Mill and Rousseau.
Prereq: Three credits from 2000-level Philosophy; or permission of the Department.

PHIL 3421 (3CR)
NINETEENTH CENTURY AMERICAN PHILOSOPHY
A study of the principles of the American spirit as early formulated in the works of such authors as Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and Walt Whitman, H.D. Thoreau and R.W. Emerson. Central to the American spirit is the concern for individuality and practicality.
Prereq: Three credits from 2000 level Philosophy; or permission of the Department.

PHIL 3451 (3CR)
TWENTIETH CENTURY AMERICAN PHILOSOPHY
A study of selected American thinkers from Henry Adams to the present, including William Faulkner and John Dewey.
Prereq: Three credits from 2000-level Philosophy; or permission of the Department.

PHIL 3511 (3CR)
PHILOSOPHY OF THE LIFE SCIENCES
In recent decades the philosophical assumptions underlying the life sciences have been seen increasingly as distinct from the physical sciences. This course will examine this difference as well as the linkage between them, then turn to the philosophical issues within evolutionary theory, the notion of species and problems of classification, persistent controversies surrounding sociobiology, genetic control, use of animals in research, and the application of bioethics.
Prereq: Normally Philosophy 2511is expected. However B.Sc. students already doing 3/4000-level work in their own field, and students in either the Environmental Science or Environmental Studies programs, will be admitted; or permission of the Department.

PHIL 3631 (3CR)
SYMBOLIC LOGIC I
This is a basic course in Symbolic Logic, concentrating on the nature of logic, methods of deduction, quantification theory, and the logic of relational statements.
Prereq: Three credits from 2000-level Philosophy; or permission of the Department.

PHIL 3641 (3CR)
SYMBOLIC LOGIC II
Building upon the work of Philosophy 3631, this course considers axiomatic systems (mainly Russell's), metalogical induction (regarding consistency, completeness, independence, and the like), axiomatic set formation (mainly Zermelo's), and theory of logic.
Prereq: PHIL 3631; or permission of the Department.

PHIL 3711 (3CR)
BIOMEDICAL ETHICS
This course will consist of the examination of a number of contemporary issues, such as gene therapy, abortion, reproductive technologies, euthanasia, HIV testing and confidentiality, organ retrieval, and advanced directives. In a framework of health, we will discuss larger philosophical questions such as: the possibility of assigning and comparing values, the nature of the human self, the possibilities of agency and responsibility, duties to society, gender and health, the meanings of technology, and social justice. While the focus of this course is not on ethical theory, we will make use of classical moral theories and principles to frame our analyses.
Prereq: Philosophy 2701; or permission of the Department.

PHIL 3721 (3CR)
ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS
After reviewing traditional attitudes toward the environment, this course will explore recent attempts to "apply" ethical analysis to such problems as pollution and conservation. We will pay particular attention to the ways in which problems of preservation challenge us to extend our traditional norms and values. To what extent, for example, does growing sensitivity to our natural environment require of us a new "environmental ethic" and oblige us to recognize "animal rights"?
Prereq: PHIL 2701; or permission of the Department.

PHIL/RELG 3891 (3CR)
ASIAN PHILOSOPHY
A study of the ancient trends of Oriental literature in the light of western philosophical concerns. Readings include the Hindu Bhagavadgita, the Chinese Tao Te Ching, and selected Buddhist writings.
Prereq: Three credits from 2000-level Philosophy; or permission of the Department.
Note: This course is cross-listed as RELG 3891 and may therefore count as three credits in either discipline.

PHIL 4101 (3CR)
ADVANCED ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY
Advanced study of one or more of the main philosophers of these periods, or one or more philosophic questions they address.
Prereq: Permission of the Department.

PHIL 4200 (6CR)
KANT
An examination of Kant's Critical project, including the arguments for the existence of God, freedom and immortality to which it led. This will involve, among other things, a close study of the Critique of Pure Reason, The Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals, The Critique of Practical and Religion Within the Bounds of Mere Reason.
Prereq: Permission of the Department.

PHIL 4311 (3CR)
19TH & 20TH CENTURY POLITICAL THOUGHT
This course examines the theoretical and political grounds upon which liberal political philosophy has been extended, modified or abandoned. Specifically, we investigate contemporary defenders of a social contract model of ethical and political relations, and some of the many critiques of its principles (autonomy, transparency, consent), its methods (liberal jurisprudence, representation) and its promised (equality, a neutral state, a just society). Alternative critical frameworks, such as communitarianism, Marxism, feminist ethics, and postmodernism, will be investigated.
Prereq: Permission of the Department.

PHIL 4411 (3CR)
TWENTIETH CENTURY LINGUISTIC PHILOSOPHY
Advanced study of the logical questions that arise in conjunction with the phenomenological analysis of signification and meaning originally proposed by Husserl and Heidegger and subsequently developed by Merleau-Ponty, Foucault, Derrida, Gadamar and others.
Prereq: Permission of the Department.

PHIL 4511 (3CR)
PHILOSOPHY OF MIND
A study of the contemporary philosophical arguments which attempt to resolve the real nature of mental states vis à vis the physical states of the brain; how it is we have knowledge of our own sensations, beliefs, desires, our own consciousness and how we gain knowledge of other minds; and also the more general questions of how we should best proceed to resolve these issues.
Prereq: Permission of the Department.

PHIL 4600 (6CR)
PHENOMENOLOGY
A study of a number of selected problems according to the methods and concerns of this twentieth century style of thinking.
Prereq: Permission of the Department.

PHIL 4950/4951 (6/3CR)
PROBLEMS IN PHILOSOPHY
A senior seminar or tutorial course to be determined by the student(s) and instructor(s) involved.
Prereq: Permission of the Department.

PHIL 4990 (6CR)
HONOURS TOPIC
The content of study is to be determined by the student in conjunction with one or more supervisors of the course. The format of the course is described in the Departmental Handbook.
Prereq: Permission of the Department.