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PHL/PHI Philosophy CoursesStudents are advised to consult the Philosophy Department website for further details on course offerings. HUM199Y1
Undergraduate seminar that focuses on specific ideas, questions, phenomena or controversies, taught by a regular Faculty member deeply engaged in the discipline. Open only to newly admitted first year students. It may serve as a distribution requirement course; see page 44. NOTE PHL100Y1 The central branches of philosophy - logic, theory of knowledge, metaphysics, and ethics. Some time may be devoted to questions in
political philosophy and philosophy of religion. The course is concerned with such questions as: What is sound reasoning? What can
we know? What is ultimately real? Is morality rational? Do humans have free will? Is there a God? PHL102Y1 The central branches of philosophy - logic, theory of knowledge, metaphysics, and ethics - introduced with the emphasis on the last
three. A selection of works by such philosophers as Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Descartes, Hume, Kant, Nietzsche, and one or more
contemporary authors are studied. 200-SERIES COURSES PHL200Y1 Central texts of the pre-socratics, Plato, Aristotle, and post-Aristotelian philosophy. TRN200Y1
(See “Trinity College Courses”) PHL201H1 An introduction to philosophy focusing on the connections among its main branches: logic, theory of knowledge, metaphysics, and
ethics. This course is intended for those with little or no philosophy background but have completed four FCEs in any subject. PHL205H1 A study of issues such as the relations of reason and faith, the being and the nature of God, and the problem of universals, in the
writings of such philosophers as Augustine, Boethius, and Anselm and Abelard. PHL206H1 A study of issues such as the relations of reason and faith, the being and the nature of God, and the structure of the universe, in the
writings of such philosophers as Aquinas and Ockham. PHL210Y1 Central texts of such philosophers as Hobbes, Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, and Kant. PHL215H
An examination of central themes in the thought of Kierkegaard (e.g., the leap of faith, paradox, decision) and Nietzsche (e.g., will to
power, the death of God, eternal return, the overman) through a selection of their texts. PHL216H1
An examination of some leading themes in the theory of Karl Marx. PHL220H1
This influential way of thinking in philosophy, theology, psychotherapy, and literature became prominent with such 20th-century
authors as Jaspers, Heidegger, Buber, Camus, and Sartre, but it had its roots in the 19th-century, especially in the writings of
Kierkegaard. Principal themes: nature and predicament of the self, self-deception, and freedom of choice. PHL230H1 An introduction to epistemology: the nature and scope of human knowledge. Perception, meaning, evidence, certainty, skepticism,
belief, objectivity, and truth. PHL231H1 An introduction to metaphysics: conceptions of the overall framework of reality. Typical problems include: existence and essence,
categories of being, mind and body, freedom and determinism, causality, space and time, God. PHL235H1
Some central issues in the philosophy of religion such as the nature of religion and religious faith, arguments for the existence of God,
the problem of evil, varieties of religious experience, religion and human autonomy. (Offered in alternate years) PHL236Y1
The distinctive features of religious living; the relationship of religious living and critical thinking; the meaning of “God”; arguments
regarding the existence and nature of God; the problems of God and evil; the meaning of death; arguments regarding the existence and
nature of a personal afterlife. PHL237H1
An historical and systematic introduction to the main phases of Chinese philosophical development, including Confucianism, Taoism,
Buddhism, and Neo-Confucianism; the challenge of Western thought and the development of modern Chinese Philosophy. PHL240H1
Consciousness and its relation to the body; personal identity and survival; knowledge of other minds; psychological events and
behaviour. PHL243H1
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. PHL244H1
Aspects of human nature, e.g., emotion, instincts, motivation. Theories of human nature, e.g., behaviourism, psychoanalysis. PHL245H1 The application of symbolic techniques to the assessment of arguments. Propositional calculus and quantification theory. Logical
concepts, techniques of natural deduction. PHL246H1
The elements of axiomatic probability theory and its main interpretations (frequency, logical, and subjective). Reasoning with
probabilities in decision-making and science. PHL247H1 The area of informal logic - the logic of ordinary language, usually non-deductive. Criteria for the critical assessment of arguments as
strong or merely persuasive. Different types of arguments and techniques of refutation; their use and abuse. HPS250H1
(See “History & Philosophy of Science & Technology”) JUP250Y1
An introduction to the problems, theories and research strategies central to an interdisciplinary field focussing on the nature and
organization of the human mind and other cognitive systems. Interrelations among the philosophical, psychological, linguistic and
computer science aspects of the field are emphasized. (Offered by the Department of Philosophy and University College) PHL255H1 An examination of (e.g.) ESP, astrology, race and I.Q., scientific creationism, psychoanalysis, sociobiology; the principles of good
science as opposed to pseudo-science, especially in “borderline” cases; misuses of science. JAP256H1
The course explores a range of African cosmologies, epistemologies, and theologies, as well as specific case studies on justice, the
moral order, and gender relations. The influence of these richly diverse traditions is traced as well in the writings of African thinkers
in the Diaspora. Jointly taught by the Departments of Anthropology and Philosophy. PHL265H1
Central issues in political philosophy, e.g., political and social justice, liberty and the criteria of good government are introduced
through a comparative and critical study of major philosophers, such as Plato and Aristotle in the classical period, and Hobbes, Mill,
and Marx in the modern era. PHL267H1
Main types of feminist theory: liberal, Marxist, Existential and “Radical”. A number of ethical, political and psychological issues are
considered. PHL271H1
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. PHL272H1
The nature, aims, and content of education; learning theory; education and indoctrination; the teaching of morals and the morality of
teaching; the role and justification of educational institutions, their relation to society and to individual goals; authority and freedom
in the school. (Offered in alternate years) PHL273H1
A study of environmental issues raising questions of concern to moral and political philosophers, such as property rights, PHL275H1
Central issues in ethics are introduced through a comparative and critical study of some of the major figures in the history of moral
philosophy, such as Aristotle, Hume, Kant, and Mill. Some 20th-century philosophers may also be studied. PHL278H1
Moral and political issues concerning warfare: the theory of the “just war”, pacifism, moral constraints on the conduct of war, war as
an instrument of foreign policy, the strategy of deterrence. Special attention to the implications of nuclear weapons. (Offered in
alternate years) PHL281Y1 An introduction to the study of moral and legal problems in medical practice and in biomedical research; the development of health
policy. Topics include: concepts of health and disease, patient rights, informed consent, allocation of scarce resources, euthanasia,
abortion, genetic and reproductive technologies, human research, and mental health. PHL285H1
An historical and systematic introduction to the main questions in the philosophy of art and beauty from Plato to the present. These
include the relation between art and beauty, the nature of aesthetic experience, definitions and theories of art, the criteria of excellence
in the arts, and the function of art criticism. (Offered in alternate years) PHL288H1
The literary expression of philosophical ideas and the interplay between literature and philosophy. Such philosophical issues as the
nature and origin of good and evil in human beings, the nature and extent of human freedom and responsibility, and the diverse forms
of linguistic expression. Such authors as Wordsworth, Mill, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Miller, Camus, and Lawrence are studied.
(Offered in alternate years) PHL295H1 Philosophical issues in ethics, social theory, and theories of human nature insofar as they bear on contemporary conduct of business.
Issues include: Does business have moral responsibilities? Can social costs and benefits be calculated? Does modern business life
determine human nature or the other way around? Do political ideas and institutions such as democracy have a role within business? PHL299Y1 Credit course for supervised participation in faculty research project. See here for details. 300-SERIES COURSES VIC300Y
PHL303H1 Selected metaphysical, epistemological, and ethical themes in Plato’s dialogues. PHL304H1 Selected anthropological, ethical and metaphysical themes in the works of Aristotle. PHL307H1
Central themes in St. Augustine’s Christian philosophy, such as the problem of evil, the interior way to God, the goal of human life
and the meaning of history. (Offered in alternate years) PHL308H1
Philosophical innovations that St. Thomas Aquinas made in the course of constructing a systematic theology: essence and existence,
the Five Ways, separate intelligences, the human soul and ethics. (Offered in alternate years) PHL310H1
Central philosophical problems in Descartes, Spinoza, or Leibniz. PHL311H1
Central philosophical problems in Locke, Berkeley, or Hume. PHL312H1 A systematic study of The Critique of Pure Reason. PHL315H1
The systems of thought that followed Kant, including Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel. Then later authors such as Schopenhauer, Marx,
and Nietzsche who were, in part, critics of Hegel, but who were also creative thinkers who shaped the future. (Offered in alternate
years) PHL316H1 An examination of Hegel’s project of absolute knowing, its philosophical assumptions, and its implications for history, science and
experience. PHL318H1
Interpretations of Marxism: pro- and anti-Marxist arguments and concerns down to the present day. Possible focuses are the
philosophical developments or critiques of Marxism by Lenin, Mao, Gramsci, Lukacs, Althusser, Habermas, the “analytic Marxists”,
or others. (Offered in alternate years) PHL320H1
Phenomenology is a method used in the analysis of human awareness and subjectivity. It has been applied in the social sciences, in the
humanities, and in philosophy. Texts studied are from Husserl and later practitioners, e.g., Heidegger, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty,
Gurwitsch, and Ricoeur. (Offered in alternate years) PHL321H1 Some work from the 1920’s (either Being and Time or contemporary lectures) and selections from Heidegger’s later work on poetry,
technology, and history are studied. Heidegger’s position within phenomenology and within the broader history of thought is charted.
(Offered in alternate years) PHL322H1
German and French philosophy after World War II, focusing on such topics as: debates about humanism, hermeneutics, critical
theory, the structuralist movement, its successors such as deconstruction. Typical authors: Heidegger, Gadamer, Habermas, Levi-Strauss, Foucault, Derrida. PHL325H
Analytic philosophy up to the present day. Authors from Frege and Russell to Quine and Kripke. (Offered in alternate years) PHL326H Wittgenstein’s views on the structure and function of language, meaning, the possibility of a private language, and the concepts of
feeling and thinking. The Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus and the Philosophical Investigations. PHL330Y1 Historical and systematic approaches. Principal issues include: the nature of reality, substance and existence, necessity and the a
priori, truth, knowledge and belief, perception, causality. PHL335H1 Some specific problem(s) in the philosophy of religion, such as the relationship of religious faith and religious belief, the ontological
argument for the existence of God, theories about divine transcendence, the philosophical presuppositions of religious doctrines, the
modern critique of religion. PHL336H1
An introduction to the major thinkers in classical Islamic philosophy, with emphasis placed on developing a properly philosophical
understanding of the issues and arguments. Topics include the existence of God; creation and causality; human nature and knowledge;
the nature of ethical obligations; and the constitution of the ideal political state. PHL337H1
An intermediate level treatment of such topics as: human nature; good and evil; the role of emotions; the metaphysical ultimate. PHL338H1
A selection of texts and issues in Jewish philosophy, for example, Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed, Buber’s The Prophetic Faith,
prophecy and revelation, Divine Command and morality, creation and eternity, the historical dimension of Jewish thought. (Offered
in alternate years) PHL340H1 Typical issues include: the mind-brain identity theory; intentionality and the mental; personal identity. PHL341H1
Human action, and the nature of freedom and responsibility in the light of contemporary knowledge concerning the causation of
behaviour. PHL342H1
Topics include: philosophical foundations of artificial intelligence theory; the computational theory of the mind; functionalism vs.
reductionism; the problems of meaning in the philosophy of mind. JPP343Y1
An examination of social and political thought concerning the nature of women and their role in society, including the relation
between the family and “civil society”. The debate between Aristotle and Plato; treatment by early modern individualism; the anti-individualist theory; some major contemporary perspectives, especially liberal and Marxist feminism. (Given by the Departments of
Philosophy and Political Science) PHL344H1
Soundness and completeness of propositional and quantificational logic, undecidability of quantificational logic, and other PHL345H1
A sequel to PHL245H1, developing skills in quantificational logic and treating of definite descriptions. The system developed is used
to study a selection of the following topics: philosophical uses of logic, formal systems, set theory, non-classical logics, and
metalogic. PHL346H1
Platonism versus nominalism, the relation between logic and mathematics, implications of Gödel’s theorem, formalism and PHL347H1
Formal study of the concepts of necessity and possibility; modal propositional and quantificational logic; possible-worlds semantics;
the metaphysics of modality. (Offered in alternate years) PHL349H1
Axiomatic set theory developed in a practical way, as a logical tool for philosophers, with some attention to philosophical problems
surrounding it. PHL351H1
The nature of language as a system of human communication, theories of meaning and meaningfulness, the relation of language to the
world and to the human mind. PHL355H1
The structure and methods of science: explanation, methodology, realism and instrumentalism. PHL356H1
Introduction to philosophical issues which arise in modern physics, especially in Relativity and Quantum Mechanics. Topics include:
the nature of spacetime, conventionality in geometry, determinism, and the relation between observation and existence. (Offered in
alternate years) PHL357H1
Philosophical issues in the foundations of biology, e.g., the nature of life, evolutionary theory; controversies about natural selection;
competing mechanisms, units of selection; the place of teleology in biology; biological puzzles about sex and sexual reproduction; the
problem of species; genetics and reductionism; sociobiology; natural and artificial life. PHL362H1 Typical questions include: Has history any meaning? Can there be general theories of history? How are the findings of historians
related to the theories of metaphysics and of science? Is history deterministic? Must the historian make value judgements? Is history
science or an art? Are there historical forces or spirits of an epoch? (Offered in alternate years) PHL365H1
A study of some of the central problems of political philosophy, addressed to historical and contemporary political theorists. PHL370H1
Major issues in philosophy of law, such as legal positivism and its critics, law and liberalism, feminist critiques of law, punishment
and responsibility. PHL373H1
An intermediate-level examination of key issues in environmental philosophy, such as the ethics of animal welfare, duties to future
generations, deep ecology, ecofeminism, sustainable development and international justice. PHL375H1
A study of some of the main problems in moral philosophy, such as the objectivity of values, the nature of moral judgements, rights
and duties, the virtues, and consequentialism. PHL381H1
An intermediate-level study of problems in biomedical and behavioural research with human subjects: informed voluntary consent,
risk and benefit, experimental therapy, randomized clinical trials, research codes and legal issues, dependent groups (human embryos,
children, the aged, hospital patients, the dying, prisoners, the mentally ill. (Offered in alternate years) PHL382H1 An intermediate-level study of moral and legal problems, including the philosophical significance of death, the high-tech PHL383H1 An intermediate-level study of moral and legal problems, including the concepts of mental health and illness, mental competence,
dangerousness and psychiatric confidentiality, mental institutionalization, involuntary treatment and behaviour control, controversial
therapies; legal issues: the Mental Health Act, involuntary commitment, the insanity defence. (Offered in alternate years) PHL384H1 An intermediate-level study of moral and legal problems, including the ontological and moral status of the human embryo and fetus;
human newborn, carrier and prenatal genetic screening for genetic defect, genetic therapy; the reproductive technologies (e.g.,
artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization); recent legislative proposals and judicial decisions. (Offered in alternate years) PHL385H1
Selected topics in the philosophy of art. Such issues as the following are discussed: whether different arts require different aesthetic
principles; relations between art and language; the adequacy of traditional aesthetics to recent developments in the arts; art as an
institution. (Offered in alternate years) PHL390Y1/395H1/396H1/397H1
Individual Studies courses (PHL 390Y1, PHL 395H1/396H1/397H1), which involve directed study and research, are available to
advanced students. Arrangements must be made with a faculty supervisor, and approval of the Undergraduate Co-ordinator obtained
before registration. No more than one individual studies course can be counted towards any philosophy program. PHL398H0/399Y0
An instructor-supervised group project in an off-campus setting. See here for details. 400-SERIES COURSES PHL401H1
Advanced study of some of the principal figures in a particular historical, philosophical tradition. PHL404H1
Typical problems include the nature of knowledge and belief; perception; theories of truth and necessity; skepticism. PHL406H1
Typical problems include causality and determinism; ontological categories; mind and body; the objectivity of space and time. PHL407H1
Advanced discussion of issues in moral philosophy, including issues of applied ethics. PHL408H1
Topics vary but bridge two or more areas or traditions of philosophy. PHL409H1
Advanced study of key philosophical works published within the last five years. PHL451H1
The claims of logical positivism, ordinary language philosophy, structuralism, or generative linguistics about the importance of
language for philosophy; hypotheses about mind, metaphysics, and meaning. PHL471H1
Recommended preparation: PHL200Y1 PHL472H1
Recommended preparation: PHL(205H1, 206H1)/(307H1, 308H1) PHL473H1
Recommended preparation: PHL210Y1/(310H1, 311H1) PHL475H1
Recommended preparation: PHL275H1/375H1 PHL476H1
Recommended preparation: PHL230H1/330Y1 PHL477H1
Recommended preparation: PHL231H1/330Y1 PHL478H1
Recommended preparation: PHL235H1/236Y1/335H1 PHL479H1
Recommended preparation: JUP250Y1/PHL240H1/340H1/341H1 PHL480H1
Recommended preparation: Two of PHL344H1-349H PHL481H1
Recommended preparation: PHL351H1 PHL482H1
Recommended preparation: PHL355H1 PHL483H1
Recommended preparation: PHL365H1 PHL484H1
Recommended preparation: PHL271H1/PHL370H1 PHL485H1
Recommended preparation: PHL285H1/PHL385H1 PHL486H1
Recommended preparation: PHL362H1 PHL487H1/488H1/489H1/490H1/491H1/492H1/493H1/494H1/495H1/496H1/497H1/498H1/499H1Y1
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