The following courses will be offered for the 2024 Summer Session. Information on instructors, readings and evaluation, and more specific course descriptions is to come. However, finalized descriptions and marking schemes will be given out on the first day of classes with your course syllabus. The timetable information is subject to change. The Faculty of Arts & Science will publish any changes to the University’s Timetable Builder website.
PHL100Y1Y – Ancient Wisdom, Modern Insights: An Introduction to Philosophy
Instructors: Ismael Kettani
Schedule: Mondays 18:00-20:00 and Wednesdays 18:00-21:00 (Tutorials: Mondays 20:00 or Wednesdays 17:00)
Delivery Method: Online-Synchronous (In-Person Final Exam)
Description: An introduction to the central branches of philosophy, such as logic, theory of knowledge, metaphysics, ethics, and political philosophy. Writings from the central figures in the history of Western and non-Western philosophy, as well as contemporary philosophers, may be considered.
PHL210Y1Y – 17th and 18th Century Philosophy
Instructors: Sooyoung Moon
Schedule: Tuesdays 9:00-12:00 and Thursdays 9:00-11:00 (Tutorials: Thursdays 11:00 or 12:00)
Delivery Method: Online-synchronous (In-Person Final Exam)
Description: This course introduces students to the key texts of the main philosophers from the 17th and 18th century or early modern philosophy. While it is customary to teach this era of philosophy in terms of empiricism and rationalism at a 200-level undergraduate courses (typically starting with Francis Bacon and Rene Descartes as a representative of each camp and taking Locke, Berkeley and Hume as empiricist successors while regarding Spinoza and Leibniz in the rationalist tradition), this course takes a slightly different approach. We implement the distinction between experimental/speculative philosophy to address the more complicated intellectual terrain of the early modern period (such as the emergence of the New Science, mechanical philosophy, Scientific Revolution). Further, in light of this additional distinction, we can reconsider the adequacy of the stereotypical empiricist/rationalist label that the standard narrative had laid upon the philosophers.
This course lays more focus on the theoretical side of philosophy, more specifically, on the natural philosophy of thinkers rather than their practical philosophy. Especially in the first half of the course (or roughly the 17th century), by using the experimental/speculative distinction, we examine primarily metaphysics, philosophy of nature (motion, bodies, space, time, etc.), and the scientific methodology of the selected figures such as Bacon, Galileo, Descartes, Spinoza, Newton, Boyle and Locke. As we move into the 18th century and turn to Germany, however, we will rely less on the experimental/speculative philosophy distinction but rather, in anticipation to Kant’s philosophy, we attempt to understand the preceding figures as proximate intellectual backgrounds in which Kant’s philosophy grew. Here still, the thematic focus will remain metaphysics and natural philosophy. Towards the end, this course’s highlight: Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason. In what way, if at all, was Kant’s first Critique so revolutionary? We read and digest as much Critique as possible; while also trying to connect things that we have learned throughout summer to answer this open question.
Evaluation Method: Participation; Attendance; In-Class Writing Assignments; Take-Home Paper; In-Person Final Exam
PHL217H1S – Introduction to Continental Philosophy
Instructor: Alexander Drusda
Schedule: Mondays 18:00-20:00 and Wednesdays 18:00-21:00 (Tutorials: Mondays 20:00 or Wednesdays 17:00)
Delivery Method: In-Person
Description: An introduction to some of the post-Hegelian thinkers who inspired the various philosophical movements broadly referred to as continental, such as phenomenology, existentialism, deconstruction, and post-modernism. Questions include the will, faith, death, existence, history and politics, rationality and its limits, encountering an other. Authors studied may include: Kierkegaard, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Marx, Freud, Heidegger, Sartre.
Evaluation: TBD
PHL232H1F – Knowledge and Reality
Instructor: Patrick Fraser
Schedule: Mondays 14:00-17:00 and Wednesdays 15:00-17:00 (Tutorials: Wednesdays 17:00 or 18:00)
Delivery Method: In-person
Description: This is an introduction to contemporary metaphysics and epistemology. Metaphysics is the study of the fundamental structure of reality. Epistemology is the study of knowledge, belief, and justification. The first half of the course will explore five important topics in metaphysics: the problem of universals, essence and modality, space and time, personal identity, and free will. The second half of the course will explore five important topics in epistemology: skepticism, knowledge and belief, knowledge-how, justification, and (anti-)foundationalism. No prior background in philosophy will be presupposed, but students will be required to write argumentative essays and will be expected to complete assigned readings before each class.
Readings: TBD
Evaluation: Participation (20%), essay assignment (25%), midterm (25%), final exam (30%).
PHL240H1F – Persons, Minds and Bodies
Instructor: Sanghun Han
Schedule: Tuesdays 18:00-20:00 and Thursdays 18:00-21:00 (Tutorials: Tuesdays 20:00 or Thursdays 17:00)
Delivery Method: In-person
Description: This course will examine central issues concerning consciousness and its relation to the body, personal identity and survival, knowledge of other minds, and psychological events and behavior. More specifically, this course will be concerned with the questions of the following sort: what’s the relationship between the mind and body, and how do they grant the sense of ‘I’? Does the mind cause our actions? What does it mean for a thing to be conscious? What is memory and how does it relate to personal identity? Readings will be mostly analytic philosophy books and papers, along with some historical and empirical materials.
Preliminary marking scheme
(1) In-class Writing Exercise: 10%. This will be a short pass-or-fail response to a question about the materials covered by that week. There will be total 10 group and individual exercises during each class, starting from the second week of the semester. As long as you show up to class and try to complete the exercise, you will pass.
(2) Tutorial Attendance: 10%. Regular attendance to tutorial is strongly encouraged as it will help your understanding of the course materials.
(3) In-class Essay 1: 20% (May 14; during class). 750-1000 words. The main task will be to reconstruct, in your own words, one of the arguments from the texts we’ve read and raise an objection to it. The question will be provided.
(4) In-class Essay 2: 25% (May 28; during class). 750-1250 words. This will be similar to In-class Essay 1, except that on top of raising an objection, you will also respond to the objection you raise–a typical structure of a philosophical essay. The question will be provided.
(5) Final Exam: 35%. The exam will consist of 4-5 questions concerning the texts from Week 1 to 6. The final exam will take place during the final exam period. The specific exam date, time, and location will be made available on ACORN later.
PHL243H1S – Philosophy of Human Sexuality
Instructor: Cassandra Williams
Schedule: Tuesdays and Thursdays 18:00-21:00
Delivery Method: Online-Synchronous
Description: This course examines a variety of issues in the philosophy of sexuality from the perspectives of metaphysics, social and political philosophy, and philosophy of science alike. The questions we will investigate include what biology and neuroscience tell us about whether sex and gender are natural kinds; whether consent is sufficient (or even necessary) for ethical sex; the ethics of the sex industry; and the metaphysics of romantic love.
PHL245H1Y – Modern Symbolic Logic
Instructor: Alex Koo
Schedule: Tuesdays 13:00-15:00; Fridays 13:00-14:00
Delivery Method: In-person
Logic is a central pillar of philosophy that has its roots in ancient civilizations. Aristotle was one of the first to formalize the discipline into a highly applicable system for analyzing arguments. Logic was modernized by Frege at the end of the 19th century and by Russell and Whitehead at the start of the 20th century. Since then, logical tools have become essential in many areas of analytic philosophy such as philosophy of science, philosophy of language, and epistemology.
Modern Symbolic Logic is a technical course in first-order logic. Students will learn the meaning of logical symbols and develop the skills for performing derivations in both sentential and predicate logic. We will begin with truth tables of basic logical operators and end with polyadic predicates, identity, and operations. Mastering these tools foster critical thinking and argumentation skills, lead to a precise understanding of natural language, and result in better reading and writing skills. All of these skills are essential to the practice of philosophy and other academic disciplines, critical for excelling on standardized tests such as the LSAT, and are useful in everyday life.
This is a hybrid and flipped course. Lecture videos will be posted online for asynchronous viewing, and in-class time will be dedicated to practicing and improving skills. Term tests will be done in-person during the 1-hour timeslot.
Readings: Text provided online
Evaluations: 4 term tests, 12 weekly quizzes, final exam
PHL271H1F – Law and Morality
Instructor: Julian Sheldon
Schedule: Mondays 09:00-12:00 and Wednesdays 09:00-11:00 (Tutorials: Wednesdays 11:00 or 12:00)
Delivery Method: Online-Synchronous (In-Person Final Exam)
Description: This course will introduce you to the philosophy of law, with a particular emphasis on the relationship between law and morality. We will cover three broad topics:
Firstly, the law exercises coercive power, forcing us to obey. When is the use of this power legitimate? For example, is the state justified in prohibiting conduct that is immoral or self-destructive, even when such conduct causes no harm to others? Secondly, what is the law? Every society has many sets of rules and norms that regulate the behaviour of its members, but when do these count as legal systems? Is there any necessary relationship between law and morality? And thirdly, are we obliged to obey the law just because it is the law? Are we ever obliged to disobey an unjust law? And what justifies the use of criminal punishment?
Through these topics, you will be introduced to a range of canonical and contemporary texts within the philosophy of law, which we will use to analyse real-world legal judgements and interrogate our own legal systems.
Evaluation: Tutorial attendance and participation (15%); Case Analysis (15%); Take-Home Essay (25%); Final Exam (45%).
PHL273H1S – Environmental Ethics
Instructor: Nate Oppel
Schedule: Tuesdays and Thursdays 13:00-16:00
Delivery Method: Online-Synchronous (In-person Final Exam)
Description: It is widely accepted that climate change and animal agriculture cause incredible amounts of harm. However, these phenomena are the result of the actions of billions of people, so it is hard to see what difference the action of one person makes. That is, it is hard to see why we are, as individuals, obligated to reduce our contribution to climate change and animal agriculture. In this class, we will consider whether you, as an individual, have an obligation to limit your greenhouse gas emissions and your consumption of animal products. Related questions will include “do non-human animals have moral status?” and “who ought to pay for climate change.
PHL275H1S – Introduction to Ethics
Instructor: Cameron Yetman
Schedule: Mondays 13:00-16:00 and Wednesdays 13:00-15:00 (Tutorials: Wednesdays 15:00 or 16:00)
Delivery method: In-person
Description: An introduction to central issues in ethics or moral philosophy, such as the objectivity of values, the nature of moral judgements, rights and duties, the virtues, and consequentialism. Readings may be drawn from a variety of contemporary and historical sources.
PHL281H1F – Bioethics
Instructor: Stacy Chen
Schedule: Mondays 18:00-20:00 and Wednesdays 18:00-21:00 (Tutorials: Monday 20:00 and Wednesdays 17:00)
Delivery Method: In-person
Description: Ethics is the study of what we ought to do or what behaviours are morally correct/incorrect. Bioethics is the study of these questions specifically in the context of health, including but not limited to: medicine and medical practice, health technologies, and research. This course is an introduction to the prevailing theories and the contemporary debates in bioethics. Some examples of questions we will discuss are: How do we balance autonomy and beneficence? Should medical assistance in dying be permitted? Why is informed consent important? How should research funding for disease cures be distributed globally? What does ‘do no harm’ mean in times of war? Through engaging with these issues, you will get to hone your skills of critical and analytical thinking. The skills you are asked to develop will build upon each other: (1) understanding the arguments made by bioethicists (2) critically engaging with these ideas—i.e. what do you think?—and (3) communicating these ideas to others.
Evaluation: Summary response (10%), Case study analysis (20%), In-class short paper (25%), Final exam (30%), Tutorial attendance (15%)
PHL303H1S – Plato
Instructor: Mark Gatten
Schedule: Tuesdays and Thursdays 18:00-21:00
Delivery Method: Online-Synchronous
Description: Selected metaphysical, epistemological, and ethical themes in Plato’s dialogues.
PHL319H1F – Psychoanalytic Theory
Instructor: Natalie Helberg
Schedule: Tuesdays and Thursdays 13:00-16:00
Delivery Method: In-Person
Description: A study of the fundamentals of psychoanalytic theory from a philosophical perspective, focusing on the works of Freud and others. Topics include mind (conscious and unconscious), instinctual drives, mechanisms of defence, the structure of personality, civilization, the nature of conscience, and the status of psychoanalysis.
Evaluations: TBD
PHL329H1F – Topics in 20th Century Continental Philosophy
Instructor: Valentin Wey
Schedule: Mondays and Wednesdays 9:00-12:00
Delivery Method: Online-Synchronous
Description: The idea that history might have an “end” — a final destination toward which it has been moving all along — is one of the most powerful and contested ideas in modern thought. But what does it actually mean to think history as heading somewhere? Who decides where it is going, and who gets left out of that story? What happens when progress reveals itself as catastrophe, or when the new turns out to be a repetition of the old? And what remains of historical thinking once its teleological foundations have been dismantled? This course traces these questions through some of the most provocative thinkers of the 20th century continental tradition — Kojève, Fanon, Césaire, Levi-Strauss, Benjamin, Adorno, Anders, Dupuy and Zupančič — asking what remains of the idea of historical progress, and whether anything like a future can still be thought.
Evaluations: Attendance and Participation (10 %); In-Class Group Work (10 %); In-Class assignments 40 % (4x 10%); Final Paper (6 pages) (40 %)
PHL341H1S – Freedom, Responsibility and Human Action
Instructor: Cassandra Williams
Schedule: Mondays and Wednesdays 14:00-17:00
Delivery Method: Online-Synchronous (In-Person Final Exam)
Description: It is widely supposed that humans are agents capable of bringing about their own actions in response to their reasons for action. Further, it is in virtue of these capacities that we act freely and hence are morally responsible for our behaviour. Yet these suppositions are fraught with difficulties. How can an agent herself be the cause of her actions? If her actions are determined, can she nevertheless be free? Is free will just an illusion? This intermediate-level course will survey traditional answers to these questions in the philosophy of action.
Evaluations: TBD
PHL375H1F – Ethics
Instructor: Tim McKee
Schedule: Tuesdays and Thursdays 18:00-21:00
Delivery Method: In-person
Description: Aristotle is often considered the greatest ethicist of Greek antiquity. Virtue ethics, the contemporary movement that attempts to resuscitate aspects of Ancient Greek ethical thought, overwhelmingly draws on Aristotle. But nearly all his core ideas, and many of his argumentative strategies, can be traced to Plato. In the case of all the core topics covered in the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle either builds on the foundations Plato laid or develops a view in direct response to Plato. This is true of virtue, happiness, goodness, pleasure, weakness of will, practical wisdom, and friendship. What’s more, Plato explores many fascinating ethical issues that Aristotle largely left untouched, such as the justification of morality, the unity of the virtues, erotic love, and the moral vocation of philosophy. Plato is a towering figure of Ancient Greek ethics, which cannot be understood without him. And not only that: he is also indispensible for understanding present-day virtue ethics, since several recent thinkers – including Iris Murdoch, Sophie Grace Chappell, and Robert Merrihew Adams – have compellingly argued that virtue ethics in a Platonist vein is more promising than the common Aristotelian kind.
Our topic this term is Plato’s ethics. We will focus on two main themes: (1) the response to the immoralist and (2) love. These apparently separate themes are in fact deeply connected, since they relate to what we find valuable in ourselves and in others, and what we are and should be motivated by. Exploring these themes will bring us to dialogues including the Republic, the Gorgias, the Phaedrus, the Lysis, and the Symposium. As well as being some of the richest philosophical texts ever written, they’re also artfully crafted works of literature, which enact philosophical debates through the dialogue of characters whose opposing worldviews and background assumptions often make for high-tempered confrontations. Plato’s dialogues are therefore not only about the substantive ethical question they address – they’re also reflection on how ethics should be examined and discussed, and the extent to which moral disagreement is resolvable.
Evaluation: In-class Responses (40%); Mid-Term Test (20%); Final Exam (40%)
PHL382H1S – Death and Dying
Instructor: Schuyler Pringle
Schedule: Mondays and Wednesdays 18:00-21:00
Delivery Method: Online-synchronous
In this course, we consider the subject of death and dying in healthcare. In the first half of the course, we will focus on philosophically foundational questions such as, “What does it mean to die?” “Why, if at all, is death a bad thing for the one who dies?” “Should people be allowed to choose their death?” While this discussion is interesting in and of itself, its purpose is ultimately to set the stage for our discussion in second half of the course. In this second half, we will look at how euthanasia decisions should be made. We begin with the criteria of determining patient competence and how health care decisions are to be made substitutively — on behalf of — those that are not capable to make such decisions for themselves. The goal of the course is not so much to answer these difficult questions definitively, but to provide us with the opportunity to acquire a better understanding of the kind of questions that should be asked and are, in fact, being asked in the most recent literature on the subject.
PHL388H1S – Literature and Philosophy
Instructor: Tim McKee
Schedule: Tuesdays and Thursdays 14:00-17:00
Delivery Method: In-person
Description: Philosophy and literature have always had an uneasy relationship. Even though philosophers and literary authors deal with many of the same themes, philosophers have typically been reluctant to draw from literary sources, perhaps because philosophical values such as clarity, argumentative rigour, and truth are rarely the foremost values in literature. However, there’s still a significant body of literature that has proved philosophically influential, and a significant group of philosophers who take literary works seriously as philosophical sources.
In this course we will read extracts from some of the most philosophically influential works of literature: the Mahābhārata, Aśvaghoṣa’s Buddhacarita, Sophocles’ Antigone and Philoctetes, Tolstoy’s Death of Ivan Ilyich, and Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov and Notes from Underground. To get a sense of how philosophers engage with literature, we will also read some philosophical commentaries on these works. Our focus will be on several shared themes: moral conflict, freedom, and death. We will spend our time (1) examining these themes as developed in the readings, (2) asking how literature can be a medium for philosophy, and (3) considering whether literature is an especially apt medium for philosophizing about these themes in particular.
Readings: TBD
Evaluation: In-Class Response (40%); Mid-Term (20%); Final Exam (30%); Participation (10%)