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The department’s
course offerings are listed according to areas within the discipline
as follows:
I. Introductory
Courses
II. History of Philosophy
III. Moral Philosophy
IV. Legal and Political Philosophy
V. Philosophy of Religion
VI. Themes and Authors
VII. Tutorials and Independent Studies
NOTE: Not all courses
listed are offered each year. Please consult with the department chair
for more information about current and planned course offerings
I.
Introductory Courses
1013. Introduction
to Western Philosophy I
An introduction, through lecture, reading of original sources, and discussion,
to the origins and development of western philosophy from its beginnings
in ancient Greece through the Christian Middle Ages. Authors read include
Plato, Aristotle, St. Augustine, and St. Thomas Aquinas. Themes: the
nature of reality, the nature of human being and human knowledge; moral
and
political philosophy; the existence and nature of God. 3 credit hours
.
1023. Introduction to Western Philosophy II
A continuation of the survey of developments in western philosophy,
through lecture, reading of original sources, and discussion, from the
early modern period to contemporary discussion. Focus: rationalism,
empiricism, idealism, and the reactions these provoked. Prerequisite:
PHIL 1013, or permission of the instructor. 3 credit hours.
II.
History of Philosophy
2113. Classical
Western Philosophy I
A lecture course concentrating on Classical Greek philosophy, from its
origins in the earliest
Ionian cosmologists up to the Sophists, Socrates, and Plato. Thematic
focus: the nature of
nature, the nature of knowledge, the nature of being, the nature of
the human being, as well as
moral, social, and political philosophy. 3 credit hours.
2123. Classical Western Philosophy II
A lecture course covering the history of Greek philosophy from Aristotle,
through the Epicurean and Stoic schools, up to Plotinus. The course
also includes a treatment of some of the great Roman philosophers. Thematic
focus: moral and political philosophy, philosophy of law. Prerequisite:
PHIL 1013 and 1023 or permission of the instructor. 3 credit hours.
2133. Medieval Christian Philosophy I
A lecture course covering Christian philosophy from its earliest origins
in the sub-apostolic era through the patristic period, culminating in
the Christian platonism of St. Augustine, Boethius, John Scotus Eriugena,
and St. Anselm. Thematic focus: the relation of reason and revelation.
Prerequisite: PHIL 1013 and 1023, or permission of the instructor. 3
credit hours.
2143. Medieval Christian Philosophy II
A lecture course continuing the coverage of the confluence of Christian
theology and philosophy, culminating in the great syntheses of the thirteenth
century, especially that of St. Thomas Aquinas; the collapse of the
Thomistic synthesis in fourteenth century philosophy, and the beginning
of the modern outlook. Thematic focus: the relation of reason and revelation.
Prerequisite: PHIL 1013 and 1023 or permission of the instructor. 3
credit hours.
2153. Modern Philosophy I
A study, through reading, lecture, and discussion, of Descartes, Spinoza,
Malbranche, Leibnitz, and the early British empiricists. Prerequisite:
PHIL 1013 and 1023 or permission of the instructor. 3 credit hours.
2163. Modern Philosophy II
A study, through reading, lecture, and discussion, of the later British
empiricists, Kant, and Hegel. Prerequisite: PHIL 1013 and 1023 or permission
of the instructor. 3 credit hours.
2173. Introduction to Christian Philosophy: Early and Medieval
This course will involve a close reading of the works of a number of
early and medieval Christian thinkers. The focus will be on the relation
of Christian thought to the tradition of classical philosophy and the
development of a distinctively Christian philosophical approach. Authors
studied will include Tertullian, Augustine and Aquinas. Prerequisite:
PHIL 1013 or permission
of the instructor. 3 credit hours.
2183. Introduction to Christian Philosophy: Modern and Contemporary
This course will involve a close reading of selected works of the most
influential Christian thinkers from the end of the Middle Ages to the
contemporary period. Authors studied will include Descartes, Hooker,
Hegel, Newman and Lonergan. Prerequisite: PHIL 2173 or permission of
the instructor. 3 credit hours
III.
Moral Philosophy
2213. Introduction
to Moral Philosophy
An examination, through readings, lectures, and discussion, of some
important attempts to ground ethical judgments. Themes: relativism,
egoism, values, and sentiment; values and consequences; the determination
of duty. 3 credit hours.
2233. Contemporary Moral Philosophy
An investigation, through readings, lectures, and discussion, of contemporary
issues and authors in moral philosophy. Topics include: Nietzsche and
the transvaluation of values, existentialist ethics, emotivism, Marxism
and ethics, the natural law debate, situation ethics, the logic and
meaning of ethical discourse. Prerequisite: PHIL 2213 or permission
of the instructor. 3 credit hours.
2243. Current Issues in Ethics (CRIM)
A discussion, through lectures and student presentations, of ethical
theory through its application in the consideration of such contemporary
issues as: pornography and censorship, euthanasia, abortion, punishment,
justice and welfare, sexual and racial discrimination. Prerequisite:
Phil 2213 or permission of the instructor. 3 credit hours.
IV.
Legal and Political Philosophy
3306. The Western
Tradition of Political Philosophy (POLS 2806)
This course will introduce students to the following seminal texts in
the Western political tradition: Plato, The Republic; The Apology of
Socrates; Aristotle, The Politics; Machiavelli, The Prince; Hobbes,
Leviathan; Locke, Two Treatises of Government; Rousseau, Discourse on
Inequality; Marx, 1884 Manuscripts; Communist Manifesto; Nietzsche,
The Genealogy of Morals. Six credit hours. Note: this course may be
taken for philosophy credit hours only by those students who are honouring
or majoring in philosophy.
3313. Philosophy of Human Rights (CRIM 3313; HMRT 3033; POLS 2703)
This course will introduce students to philosophical questions concerning
the foundation of human rights. What are human rights based on? What
makes something a human right? Are human rights universally and permanently
valid, or is the notion of human rights merely a construct of modern
Western culture? The course will familiarize students with alternative
theoretical
answers to these and other related questions. Prerequisite: HMRT 2003,
or permission of the instructor. 3 credit hours.
3343. Human Nature, Society, Justice and Law I: Classical and Christian
Theories
A lecture course concentrating on classical and Christian philosophies
of human nature in relation to civil society, justice, and law. Principal
question: Is human nature, in itself and/or in its essential inclinations,
good or bad? salutary or perverse? pro-social or sociopathic? Applications
(as anchored upon alternative answers to the above issues): competing
theories
of justice, law, and sanction, including issues of enforcement and correction.
Philosophers: Sophists, Plato, Aristotle, Stoics, St. Augustine, St.
Thomas, Luther, Kierkegaard. Prerequisite: PHIL 1013 or 1023 or permission
of the instructor. 3 credit hours
.
3353. Human Nature, Society, Justice, and Law II: Modern Secular
Theories (CRIM)
A lecture course concentrating on the main modern secular philosophies
of human nature, in relation to civil society, justice, and law. Principal
issue: Is human nature, in itself and/or in its essential inclinations,
good or bad? salutary or perverse? pro-social or sociopathic? Applications
(as anchored upon alternative answers to the above issues): competing
theories of justice, law, and sanction, including issues of enforcement
and correction. Philosophers: Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Berkeley,
Hume, Rousseau, Bentham, Mill, Nietzsche, Freud, Dewey, Sartre. 3 credit
hours.
3973. Christian Political Thought I
A survey, through lectures and readings of original sources, of major
Christian authors from late antiquity to the Middle Ages on the issue
of the origin, nature and purpose of the state. Authors studied include
Irenaeus, Augustine, Gelasius, Grotius, and the early political writings
of Thomas Aquinas. Pre-requisite: PHIL 1013 and 1023, or permission
of the instructor.
3983. Christian Political Thought II
A survey, through lectures and readings of original sources, of major
Christian contributions to political thinking in the later medieval,
Renaissance, Reformation, and early modern periods. Authors studied
include the later Aquinas, Calvin, and the Jesuit writers of the counterreformation.
V.
Philosophy of Religion
3413. God in
Western Thought
A survey, through lectures, readings, and discussion, of Western philosophical
speculation regarding the divine. Themes: theism and atheism in classical
antiquity; demonstrations of God's existence in medieval philosophy;
the effect on religious belief of empiricism, idealism, Marxism, and
existentialism. Prerequisite: PHIL 1013 and 1023 or permission of the
instructor. 3 credit hours.
3423. Reason and Religion
A survey of issues and authors, both classical and contemporary, in
the philosophy of religion. Consideration will be given to the following:
defining religion, religious experience and faith, the problem of evil,
the meaning of religious language, the question of life beyond death.
Prerequisite: PHIL 1013and 1023 or permission of the instructor. 3 credit
hours.
3433. Varieties of Religious Experience
An examination, through lecture, readings, and student presentations,
of the American philosopher William James' religious philosophy, as
found especially in The Varieties of Religious Experience; and of the
sympathetic but critical counter-position offered by his Harvard colleague,
Josiah Royce. Prerequisite: PHIL 1013 and 1023, or permission of the
instructor. 3 credit hours.
VI.
Themes and Authors
2513. Introduction
to Logic
A lecture course in which students learn how to identify and evaluate
arguments
drawn from a wide variety of sources. It will develop informal methods
such as the identification of argument structure and informal fallacies.
It will also develop formal methods that involve taking arguments
in English, symbolizing them in a formal language, and evaluating strengths
and weaknesses of the argument forms. Also covered are basic probability
theory, inductive logic, and statistical reasoning. 3 credit hours.
2523. Introduction to Aesthetics (FNAR)
In this course, we will investigate and critically assess some of the
most influential attempts in the history of philosophy to respond to
art and artistic expression. Readings will include selections from a
variety of philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Hegel, Heidegger,
and Benjamin. 3 credit hours.
3106. Love and Friendship (GRID 3106)
This course will explore the interrelated themes of friendship, love
and beauty. Each theme will be examined separately and as connected
to the others. Ancient and modern texts will be used to examine the
ways that different ages have addressed these fundamentally personal
and yet common human experiences. Texts will vary from year to year
but may include works such as
Plato's Symposium and Lysis, Rousseau's Emile, Descartes' Passions of
the Mind. Prerequisite: GRID 3006 or permission of the instructors.
6 credit hours
.
3206. Human Nature and Technology (GRID 3206)
This course will study the way in which diverse thinkers have considered
the question of human nature. This question will be sharpened with a
consideration of the way in which human beings considered as natural
beings use and are affected by technology. Texts will vary from year
to year, but may include works such as: Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound,
Bacon's New Atlantis, Grant's Technology and Empire, Heidegger's The
Question Concerning Technology, Fukuyama's The Posthuman Future. Prerequisite:
GRID 2012 or permission of instructors. 6 credit hours.
3503. Plato
This course will involve a close reading of a number of dialogues representing
diverse aspects of the Platonic corpus. These will include Laches, Lysis,
Ion, Philebus, and others. Prerequisite: PHIL 2113 and 2123 or permission
of the instructor. 3 credit hours.
3513. Aristotle
This course will involve a close reading of several Aristotelian works.
Particular attention will be paid to the Nichomachean Ethics and the
Politics. Preqrequisite: PHIL 2113 and 2123 or permission of the instructor.
3 credit hours.
3523. St. Thomas: Knowledge, Being, and Human Being (CATH)
A lecture course covering the Christian philosophy of Aquinas and its
relation to the previous history of philosophy, and to the historical
context of St. Thomas' own time and venue in thirteenth-century Christendom.
Thematic focus: philosophy of knowledge, of being, and of human nature.
Prerequisite: PHIL 2113, 2123, 2133, 2143, or permission of the instructor.
3 credit hours.
3533. St. Thomas: Law, Morality, Society
A lecture course covering the fundamentals of the legal, moral, and
political philosophy of Aquinas and its relation to the previous history
of philosophy and to the historical and cultural context of the high
middle ages. Prerequisite: PHIL 3523 or permission of the instructor.
3 credit hours.
3543. Existential Philosophy
A study of existential thinking, its fundamental structure, and its
importance for a contemporary understanding of the human situation.
Prerequisite: PHIL 1013 and 1023 or persmission of the instructor. 3
credit hours.
3553. St. Augustine
This course will involve a close reading of the major works of St. Augustine,
among which will be The Confessions, The Trinity, and The City of God.
Prerequisite: PHIL 1013 or permission of the instructor. 3 credit hours.
3563. Philosophy of Science (STS)
This course will examine science from the perspective of philosophy.
Topics will include the historical relation between science and philosophy,
the differences between the social and the physical sciences, the nature
of scientific change in history, the role of values in science, the
reality of "theoretical" objects of science, and feminist
alternatives to traditional scientific research. Examples will be drawn
from both the physical and the social sciences. Presupposes no previous
exposure to any particular areas of science. 3 credit hours.
3613. Kant
In this course, we will focus primarily on Kant's Critique of Pure Reason
as we work through the implications his position has for both theoretical
and moral philosophy. Prerequisite: PHIL 2153 or 2163 or permission
of the instructor. 3 credit hours.
3623. Hegel
This course will involve a careful study of Hegel's Phenomenology of
Spirit, focusing primarily on the relationships between theory and practice,
and truth and history. Prerequisite: PHIL 2153 or 2163 or permission
of the instructor. 3 credit hours.
3653. Contemporary Continental Philosophy
This course will engage and critically assess the views of some of the
most important thinkers in recent European philosophy such as Merleau-Ponty,
Benjamin, Blanchot, Bataille, Levinas, Foucault, Derrida, Lyotard. Prerequisite:
PHIL 3543 or permission of the instructor. 3 credit hours.
3763. Martin Heidegger
In this course, we will engage in a close reading of selected works
by Martin Heidegger. We will consider Heidegger's attempt to raise anew
the urgent "question of being;" specifically, how his development
of this question demands a radical assessment of many of our most dearlyheld
assumptions about truth, human nature, knowledge and reality, freedom
and responsibility,
history and time. Prerequisite: PHIL 3543 or permission of instructor.
3 credit hours.
VII.
Tutorials and Independent Studies
NOTE: The courses
listed in this section are normally intended for students
capable of independent work at an advanced level.
4706. Tutorial in the Philosophy of Plato
A directed examination of some of the major works of Plato. Prerequisite:
permission of the instructor. 6 credit hours.
4713-4836. Tutorial in Selected Catholic Thinkers
The following courses on positions and contributions of selected Catholic
thinkers are offered on a tutorial basis to advanced students capable
of independent research. Prerequisite: permission of the instructor.
3 or 6 credit hours.
4713-4716. St. Thomas
Aquinas
4723. Bernard Lonergan
4886.Honours
Seminar
Directed by a Department member on a topic approved by the Department,
this seminar for Philosophy Honours students in their final year will
involve, among other requirements, the preparation and presentation
of a major essay. Normally, this option will not be available when PHIL
4996 Honours Thesis is offered.
4983-4986. Independent Studies
Special courses in philosophical reading and writing under the direction
of members of theDepartment of philosophy may be permitted by the Chair
of the Department. 3 or 6 credit hours.
4996. Honours Thesis
Students honouring in philosophy will submit, normally in the final
semester of their BA Programme, in an extended paper resulting from
independent research, and written under the guidance of a Director chosen
from among the members of the Department. 6 credit hours.
NOTE: Not all courses listed are offered each year. Please consult with
the Department Chair for more information about current
and planned course offerings.
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