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PHLA11H3: Introduction to Ethics
Instructor: Nathan Howard
Lecture Mode: In-person
Tutorial Mode: In-person & Online synchronous
Description: 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.
PHLB04H3: Philosophy and Literature
Instructor: Alexandra Gustafson
Lecture Mode: In-person
Description: What is the relationship between literature and philosophy? Are the two complementary, or is the one antithetical to the other? Given this relationship, what is the role of the 鈥榩hilosophical novel鈥? To answer these questions, we will engage in a close reading of French existential philosopher Albert Camus鈥 The Myth of Sisyphus: And Other Essays alongside Czech novelist Franz Kafka鈥檚 The Metamorphosis. In the course of doing so, we will compare the ways that each explores such essential philosophical and literary themes as absurdity, creation, the good life, and death. Finally, we will consider whether The Metamorphosis is an example of Camusian 鈥榓bsurd creation鈥 and how this bears on our guiding questions.
PHLB05H3: Social Issues
Instructor: Alexandra Gustafson
Lecture Mode: In-person
Description: Human beings are social beings. As such, interpersonal relationships are necessary for our flourishing. Of these many relationships, loving relationships鈥攖hat is, the relationships we have with our romantic partners, family, and friends鈥攃ontribute particular meaning to our lives. We might wonder, however, what it means to be a 鈥榞ood鈥 romantic partner, sibling, or friend: How should we treat those we love? Do different relationships require different things of us? By investigating these and other pressing questions in the ethics of love and friendship, students will develop a nuanced understanding of how our relationships shape our moral landscape.
PHLB09H3: Biomedical Ethics
Instructor: Eric Mathison
Lecture Mode: In-person
Tutorial Mode: In-person
Description: 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.
PHLB18H3: Ethics of Artificial Intelligence
Instructor: Seyed Yarandi
Lecture Mode: In-person
Description:The rapid advancement of new technologies has always ushered in waves of disruption, prompting profound moral and ethical questions. Few advances, however, have challenged our moral philosophers as profoundly as AI. As we navigate this era of innovation, we grapple with moral disorientation and uncertainty about the right course of action. The emergence of AI forces us to confront both abstract questions, such as the nature of personhood, and concrete issues like privacy and misinformation. The field of AI Ethics has emerged to address these pressing moral questions as AI becomes more integrated into our lives.
In this course, we investigate the moral questions brought about by AI. We explore questions such as: How does AI challenge our traditional understanding of personhood? To what extent should AI systems be allowed to make autonomous decisions? Which approaches in normative ethics are most effective in addressing the complexities of AI ethics? And ultimately, will AIs ever become moral patients? No prior knowledge of AI is required. We will provide all of the necessary background information.
PHLB20H3: Belief, Knowledge, and Truth
Instructor: Benj Hellie
Lecture Mode: In-person
Description: 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.
PHLB31H3: Introduction to Ancient Philosophy
Instructor: Christian Pfeiffer
Lecture Mode: In-person
Description: 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.
PHLB35H3: Introduction to Early Modern Philosophy
Instructor: Caitlin Hamblin-Yule
Lecture Mode: In-person
Description: This course is an introduction to the major themes and figures of seventeenth and eighteenth century philosophy, from Descartes to Kant, with emphasis on metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics.
PHLB50H3: Symbolic Logic I
Instructor: Phil Kremer
Lecture Mode: In-person
Description: 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.
PHLB91H3: Theories of Human Nature
Instructor: Michael Kirley
Lecture Mode: In-person
Description: 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.
PHLB99H3: Philosophical Writing and Methodology
Instructor: Jessica Wilson
Lecture Mode: In-person
Description: In this writing-intensive course, students will become familiar with tools and techniques that will enable them to competently philosophize, on paper and in person. Students will learn how to write an introduction and how to appropriately structure philosophy papers, how to accurately present someone else's position or argumentation, how to critically assess someone else's view or argumentation, and how to present and defend their own positive proposal or argumentation concerning a given topic. Students will learn many more specific skills, such as, how to `signpost' what students are doing, how to identify and charitably interpret ambiguities in another discussion, and how to recognize and apply various argumentative strategies.
PHLC05H3: Ethical Theory
Instructor: Nathan Howard
Lecture Mode: In-person
Description: 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.
PHLC07H3: Death and Dying
Instructor: Eric Mathison
Lecture Mode: In-person
Description: An intermediate-level study of the ethical and legal issues raised by death and dying. Topics may vary each year, but could include the definition of death and the legal criteria for determining death, the puzzle of how death can be harmful, the ethics of euthanasia and assisted suicide, the relationship between death and having a meaningful life, and the possibility of surviving death.
PHLC31H3: Topics in Ancient Philosophy: Plato
Instructor: Ulysse Chaintreuil
Lecture Mode: In-person
Description: This course examines the foundational work of Plato in the major subject areas of philosophy: ethics, politics, metaphysics, theory of knowledge and aesthetics.
PHLC36: Topics in Early Modern Philosophy: Empiricism
Instructor: Caitlin Hamblin-Yule
Lecture Mode: In-Person
Description: 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.
PHLC37H3: Kant鈥檚 Practical Philosophy
Instructor: Sonia Sedivy
Lecture Mode: In-person
Description: The Critique of Judgement is the third and final of Kant鈥檚 principal works, where 鈥 it is said 鈥 he takes his account of our place in the world to its mature conclusion and tries to reconcile his metaphysical, epistemic and ethical views. This may seem to be a tall order for a work that takes two kinds of judgements as its subject: our aesthetic judgements of beauty and our teleological judgements about purposes, goals or ends. This course will focus on the first half of the text dealing with the judgement of beauty. Our aim will be threefold. First, we will develop an overview of Kant鈥檚 distinctive thought and 鈥渃ritical鈥 method. Second, examining Kant鈥檚 detailed account of aesthetic judgement will allow us to think hard both about our capacity for judgement and about beauty. What is special about judgement and why is it crucial to understand our capacity to make judgements such as 鈥渢his is a duck鈥 or 鈥渢his mountain is beautiful鈥? And why is it so important to understand beauty and our capacity to experience or make judgements of beauty? Third, we will make Kant鈥檚 highly abstract work specific and concrete. We will apply Kant鈥檚 ideas to work of art as well as to nature. And we will look at how interpretations 鈥 and misinterpretations 鈥 of Kant鈥檚 work have played a pivotal role that continues to shape both art and theory to this day.
PHLC60H3: Metaphysics
Instructor: Jessica Wilson
Lecture Mode: In-person
Description: A follow up to . This course will consider one or two metaphysical topics in depth, with an emphasis on class discussion.
PHLC80H3: Philosophy of Language
Instructor: Phil Kremer
Lecture Mode: In-person
Description: 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.
PHLC92H3: Political Philosophy
Instructor: Seyed Yarandi
Lecture Mode: In-person
Description: An examination of some central philosophical problems of contemporary political philosophy.
PHLC99H3: Philosophical Development Seminar
Instructor: Benj Hellie
Lecture Mode: In-person
Description:
This course aims to foster a cohesive cohort among philosophy specialists and majors. The course is an intensive seminar that will develop advanced philosophical skills by focusing on textual analysis, argumentative techniques, writing and oral presentation. Students will work closely with the instructor and their peers to develop a conference-style, research-length paper. 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 students in the Specialist and Major programs in Philosophy.
PHLD05H3: Advanced Seminar in Ethics
Instructor: Michael Kirley
Lecture Mode: In-person
Description: This course offers an in-depth investigation into selected topics in moral philosophy.
PHLD88Y3: Advanced Seminar in Philosophy: Socrates Project
Instructor: Eric Mathison
Lecture Mode: In-person
Description: The Socrates Project Seminar is a full-year seminar course that provides experiential learning in philosophy in conjunction with a teaching assignment to lead tutorials and mark assignments in PHLA10H3 and PHLA11H3. Roughly 75% of the seminar will be devoted to more in-depth study of the topics taken up in PHLA10H3 and PHLA11H3. Students will write a seminar paper on one of these topics under the supervision of a UTSC Philosophy faculty member working in the relevant area, and they will give an oral presentation on their research topic each semester. The remaining 25% of the seminar will focus on the methods and challenges of teaching philosophy, benchmark grading, and grading generally.