Visit the Timetable website for complete course scheduling details:
PHLA10H3: Reason and Truth
Instructor: Andrew Lee
Lecture Mode: In-person
Tutorial Mode: In-person & Online synchronous
Description: This course introduces a variety of philosophical questions about knowledge and skepticism, appearance and reality, mind and matter, free will and determinism, and the nature of selves. Readings will be mostly articles from contemporary analytic philosophy.
PHLB02H3: Environmental Ethics
Instructor: Alexandra Gustafson
Lecture Mode: In-person
Description: 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.
PHLB07H3: Ethics
Instructor: Caitlin Hamblin-Yule
Lecture Mode: In-person
Tutorial Mode: In-person
Description: 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.
PHLB09H3: Biomedical Ethics
Instructor: Eric Mathison
Lecture Mode: In-person
Tutorial Mode: In-person
Description: This course will introduce students to some of the main topics in bioethics, including informed consent, truth telling, privacy, medical assistance in dying, abortion, and emerging technologies. We will consider both theoretical questions (e.g., What is death? What are the goals of medicine?) as well as some applied and policy questions (e.g., When should vaccinations be mandatory? How do we ethically distribute scarce resources such as organs?).
PHLB11H3: Philosophy of Law
Instructor: Seyed Yarandi
Lecture Mode: In-person
Tutorial Mode: In-person
Description: This course explores key legal philosophy issues, focusing on the relationship between law and morality. We begin with abstract inquiries into the nature of law, asking questions such as: Is law merely a social convention? Can there be unjust laws? What is the impact of moral facts on legal facts? Following this theoretical foundation, we tackle concrete issues such as reforming laws through feminist perspectives, morally justifying punishment, assessing the objections to various punitive methods, considering the abolition of prisons, understanding wildlife crime, and evaluating the justification of civil disobedience and rioting. By integrating these topics, the course aims to provide students with a robust understanding of both the abstract and concrete dimensions of legal philosophy.
PHLB17H3: Introduction to Political Philosophy
Instructor: Eric Shoemaker
Lecture Mode: In-person
Description: Do citizens have a duty to obey the law? Is democracy the only legitimate form of political authority? Do citizens have a right to civil disobedience, even in democratic societies? Under what circumstances might the resort to violent political action be justified? In this course we will investigate such questions, by reading and thinking about core texts in political philosophy. We will examine several accounts of political obligations, and investigate whether they apply to states as we know them, and to circumstances of racial and social oppression. We will also examine what is democracy and why it is valuable as a form of political authority, and examine the range of duties citizens in democracies have to resist state injustice.
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.
PHLB55H3: Puzzles and Paradoxes
Instructor: Andrew Lee
Lecture Mode: In-person
Tutorial Mode: In-person
Description: This course examines a variety of puzzles and paradoxes concerning infinity, probability, logic, language, rationality, value, time, consciousness, and reality. Nearly every topic in the course will involve a combination of philosophical and mathematical content. As a whole, the course will be an introduction to the application of mathematical tools to philosophical questions. No formal background is required, though those familiar with mathematical ways of thinking may find the course content easier.
PHLB81H3: Theories of Mind
Instructor: Zain Raza
Lecture Mode: In-person
Tutorial Mode: In-person
Description: 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.
PHLC06H3: Topics in Ethical Theory
Instructor: Alexandra Gustafson
Lecture Mode: In-person
Description: 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.
PHLC09H3: Topics in Continental Philosophy
Instructor: Caitlin Hamblin-Yule
Lecture Mode: In-person
Description: This course is a reading and discussion intensive course in 20th century German and French European Philosophy. Among the movements we shall study will be phenomenology, existentialism, and structuralism. We will look at the writings of Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Michel Foucault, and Gilles Deleuze, among others.
PHLC10H3: Topics in Bioethics
Instructor: Nathan Howard
Lecture Mode: In-person
Description: This course will be an intermediate-level study of the goals and scope of medicine. New technologies (e.g., gene editing) and new laws (e.g., legalized assisted dying) are changing medicine. Some healthcare professionals argue that this is for the worse and that these changes represent a departure from the true purpose of medicine. We will assess these claims by exploring some of the following questions. What are the goals of medicine? To what extent should patients be able to decide which treatments they receive? What happens when healthcare providers disagree with these requests? Should they be allowed to conscientiously object? We will apply these questions to a variety of practical problems, including assisted dying, abortion, and enhancement technologies such as gene editing.
PHLC14H3: Topics in Non-Western Philosophy
Instructor: Seyed Yarandi
Lecture Mode: In-person
Description: Avicenna (980-1037) stands out arguably as the most prominent philosophical figure within the Islamic tradition, casting a significant influence on thinkers in both the Latin West and West Asia. Understanding his ideas is important for comprehending the philosophical debates that followed him. Beyond their historical significance, his philosophical contributions are relevant to some of the central debates in philosophy today. In this course, we will focus on various themes in Avicenna's metaphysics, psychology, and epistemology based on his magnum opus, the Book of the Cure. We will discuss topics such as universals, proofs of the existence of God, his flying man argument, the analysis of knowledge, and the distinction between why- and that-demonstrations. This course is designed for students interested in learning more about Avicenna's thoughts and significance. No prior knowledge of Avicenna is required. We will provide all of the necessary background information.
PHLC22H3: Topics in Theory of Knowledge
Instructor: Benj Hellie
Lecture Mode: In-person
Description: This course addresses particular issues in the theory of knowledge in detail. Topics will vary from year to year but may typically include such topics as The Nature of Knowledge, Scepticism, Epistemic Justification, Rationality and Rational Belief Formation.
PHLC35H3: Topics in Early Modern Philosophy: Rationalism
Instructor: Jessica Wilson
Lecture Mode: In-person
Description: 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.
PHLC45: Special Topics in Philosophy: Philosophy and Race
Instructor: Caitlin Hamblin-Yule
Description: TBD
PHLC51H3: Symbolic Logic II
Instructor: Phil Kremer
Lecture Mode: In-person
Description: 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.
PHLD09H3: Advanced Seminar in Bioethics
Instructor: Eric Mathison
Lecture Mode: In-person
Description: This advanced seminar will look at the ethics of psychiatry. Topics will include the definition and classification of mental health disorders, decision-making capacity, involuntary treatment, and contested concepts such as addiction.
PHLD31H3: Advanced Seminar in Ancient Philosophy: Plato's Republic
Instructor: Ulysse Chaintreuil
Lecture Mode: In-person
Description: This seminar will be devoted to reading and contemplating Plato's Republic in its entirety. In working through this most comprehensive and influential work of ancient philosophy, we will try to understand and think critically about Plato鈥檚 views on various philosophical topics, his arguments and modes of argumentation, and his overarching vision. We will also consider to what extent these things are of enduring interest for us today.
PHLD78H3: Advanced Seminar in Political Philosophy
Instructor: Eric Shoemaker
Lecture Mode: In-person
What is Global justice? Do former colonizing states have obligations of reparations to their former colonies? May the rich states of the world close their borders to migrants from developing countries? Who owns the natural resources of the world? Under what circumstances may states engage in violence against each other? In this course we will investigate such questions, but reading and thinking about texts in recent global justice and international political philosophy. The course will be organized around four core units: (1) Global justice: contemporary and historical (2) territory and natural resources (3) borders and migration (4) conflict and war . In each of these units we will explore the rights and duties of citizens and states in an increasingly globalized world.
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, PHLA11H3 and PHLB09. Roughly 75% of the seminar will be devoted to more in-depth study of the topics taken up in PHLA10H3, PHLA11H3 and PHLB09. 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