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

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.

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.

This course focuses on the thought of Immanuel Kant, making connections to some of Kant’s key predecessors such as Hume or Leibniz. The course will focus either on Kant’s metaphysics and epistemology, or his ethics, or his aesthetics.

This course explores the foundation of Analytic Philosophy in the late 19th and early 20th century, concentrating on Frege, Russell, and Moore. Special attention paid to the discovery of mathematical logic, its motivations from and consequences for metaphysics and the philosophy of mind.

This course critically examines advanced topics in philosophy.

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.

A follow up to PHLB60H3. This course will consider one or two metaphysical topics in depth, with an emphasis on class discussion.

This course will consider one or two topics in the Philosophy of Science in depth, with an emphasis on class discussion.

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.

Advance Issues in the Philosophy of Mind. For example, an examination of arguments for and against the idea that machines can be conscious, can think, or can feel. Topics may include: Turing's test of machine intelligence, the argument based on Gödel's theorem that there is an unbridgeable gulf between human minds and machine capabilities, Searle's Chinese Room thought experiment.

Advanced topic(s) in Analytic Philosophy. Sample contemporary topics: realism/antirealism; truth; interrelations among metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of mind and of science.

An examination of some central philosophical problems of contemporary political philosophy.

This course will examine some contemporary debates in recent political philosophy. Topics discussed may include the nature of justice, liberty and the criteria of good government, and problems of social coordination.

Advanced topics in the Philosophy of mind, such as an exploration of philosophical problems and theories of consciousness. Topics to be examined may include: the nature of consciousness and 'qualitative experience', the existence and nature of animal consciousness, the relation between consciousness and intentionality, as well as various philosophical theories of consciousness.

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.

This course offers an in-depth investigation into selected topics in moral philosophy.

This advanced seminar will delve deeply into an important topic in bioethics. The topics will vary from year to year. Possible topics include: a detailed study of sperm and ovum donation; human medical research in developing nations; informed consent; classification of mental illness.

This courses addresses core issues in the theory of knowledge at an advanced level. Topics to be discussed may include The Nature of Knowledge, Scepticism, Epistemic Justification, Rationality and Rational Belief Formation.

This course offers in-depth examination of selected topics from the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle, as well as the Epicurean and Stoic schools of thought. Topics will range from the major areas of philosophy: metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, politics and aesthetics.

This course offers in-depth examination of the philosophical approach offered by one of the three principal Rationalist philosophers, Descartes, Spinoza or Leibniz.

In this course, we will explore in depth certain foundational topics in the philosophy of Berkeley and Hume, with an eye to elucidating both the broadly Empiricist motivations for their approaches and how their approaches to key topics differ. Topics may address the following questions: Is there a mind-independent world? What is causation? Is the ontological or metaphysical status of persons different from that of ordinary objects? Does God exist?

This course examines Analytic Philosophy in the mid-20th century, concentrating on Wittgenstein, Ramsey, Carnap, and Quine. Special attention paid to the metaphysical foundations of logic, and the nature of linguistic meaning, including the relations between "truth-conditional" and "verificationist" theories.

Symbolic Logic deals with formal languages: you work inside formal proof systems, and also consider the "semantics", dealing with truth, of formal languages. Instead of working inside formal systems, Metalogic treats systems themselves as objects of study, from the outside.

This advanced seminar will delve more deeply into an issue in political philosophy.  Topics will vary from year to year, but some examples include: distributive justice, human rights, and the political morality of freedom.  Students will be required to present material to the class at least once during the semester.

This seminar addresses core issues in metaphysics. Topics to be discussed may include the nature of persons and personal identity, whether physicalism is true, what is the relation of mind to reality in general, the nature of animal minds and the question of whether machines can possess minds.

The Socrates Project Mentorship Seminar is a half-year seminar course that provides experiential learning in philosophy in conjunction with a teaching assignment to lead tutorials and mark assignments in PHLA10H3. This course is designed for a select number of returning Socrates Project participants chosen to mentor new Project participants. These students will solidify their teaching/grading skills and advise new participants in the Project. The seminar course will further enhance their philosophical abilities in an extension of PHLD88Y3. Roughly 75% of the seminar will be devoted to a more in-depth study of the topics taken up in the PHLA10H3 Reason and Truth. 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 further exploration of the methods and challenges of teaching philosophy, benchmark grading, and grading generally and, most distinctively, issues of mentorship of new participants to the Socrates Project.

Note: The teaching component of the Socrates Project will consist of the following components. Students will optionally attend two 1-hour PHLA10H3 lectures each week, and teach one tutorial of approximately 25 students, meeting with them for 1 hour every other week. Students will grade papers, hold office hours, and meet with the relevant professor as needed as well as provide mentorship to new participants in the Socrates Project.

The Socrates Project Mentorship Seminar is a half-year seminar course that provides experiential learning in philosophy in conjunction with a teaching assignment to lead tutorials and mark assignments in PHLA11H3. This course is designed for a select number of returning Socrates Project participants chosen to mentor new Project participants. These students will solidify their teaching/grading skills and advise new participants in the Project. The seminar course will further enhance their philosophical abilities in an extension of PHLD88Y3. Roughly 75% of the seminar will be devoted to a more in-depth study of the topics taken up in the PHLA11H3 Introduction to Ethics. 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 further exploration of the methods and challenges of teaching philosophy, benchmark grading, and grading generally and, most distinctively, issues of mentorship of new participants to the Socrates Project.

Note: The teaching component of the Socrates Project will consist of the following components. Students will optionally attend two 1-hour PHLA11H3 lectures each week, and teach one tutorial of approximately 25 students, meeting with them for 1 hour every other week. Students will grade papers, hold office hours, and meet with the relevant professor as needed as well as provide mentorship to new participants in the Socrates Project.

This course offers in-depth examination of selected contemporary theories and issues in philosophy of mind, such as theories of perception or of consciousness, and contemporary research examining whether minds must be embodied or embedded in a larger environment.

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.