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.?

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.

This course will provide an accessible understanding of AI systems, such as ChatGPT, focusing on the ethical issues raised by ongoing advances in AI. These issues include the collection and use of big data, the use of AI to manipulate human beliefs and behaviour, its application in the workplace and its impact on the future of employment, as well as the ethical standing of autonomous AI systems.

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.

This course is a thematic introduction to the history of metaphysics, focusing on topics such as the nature of God, our own nature as human beings, and our relation to the rest of the world. We will read a variety of texts, from ancient to contemporary authors, that will introduce us to concepts such as substance, cause, essence and existence, mind and body, eternity and time, and the principle of sufficient reason. We will also look at the ethical implications of various metaphysical commitments.  

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.  

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.

Much thought and reasoning occur in a context of uncertainty. How do we know if a certain drug works against a particular illness? Who will win the next election? This course examines various strategies for dealing with uncertainty. Topics include induction and its problems, probabilistic reasoning and the nature of probability, the assignment of causes and the process of scientific confirmation and refutation. Students will gain an appreciation of decision making under uncertainty in life and science.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This is an advanced, reading and discussion intensive course in the history of Arabic and Jewish thought, beginning with highly influential medieval thinkers such as Avicenna (Ibn Sīnā), al-Ghazālī, Al Fārābī, Averroes (Ibn Rushd), and Maimonides, and ending with 20th century philosophers (among them Arendt, Freud and Levinas).

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.

An intermediate-level study of bioethical issues. This course will address particular issues in bioethics in detail. Topics will vary from year to year, but may include such topics as reproductive ethics, healthcare and global justice, ethics and mental health, the patient-physician relationship, or research on human subjects.

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.

Contemporary Philosophy, as taught in North America, tends to focus on texts and problematics associated with certain modes of philosophical investigation originating in Greece and developed in Europe and North America. There are rich alternative modes of metaphysical investigation, however, associated with Arabic, Indian, East Asian, and African philosophers and philosophizing. In this course, we will explore one or more topics drawn from metaphysics, epistemology, or value theory, from the points of view of these alternative philosophical traditions.

A follow up to PHLB20H3. This course will consider one or two epistemological topics in depth, with an emphasis on class discussion.

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.

This course examines the foundational work of Plato in the major subject areas of philosophy: ethics, politics, metaphysics, theory of knowledge and aesthetics.