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PHIL 1010 Introduction to Philosophy: Great Thinkers: Ancient to Enlightenment (3,0,0) PHIL 1010 Introduction to Philosophy: Great Thinkers: Ancient to Enlightenment (3,0,0)Credits: 3 credits This course is a general introduction to philosophy using a historical approach. The course covers the period from before Socrates up to and including the French Revolution. Students discuss major philosophers including Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Descartes, Hume and Wollstonecraft. Major topics and questions explored in this course include: What is the good life? Does God exist? What is the relationship between mind and body? How is knowledge possible? What is the nature of reality? Are women equal to men in abilities and rights? |
PHIL 1020 Introduction to Philosophy: Great Thinkers: Enlightenment to Modern (3,0,0) PHIL 1020 Introduction to Philosophy: Great Thinkers: Enlightenment to Modern (3,0,0)Credits: 3 credits This course is a general introduction to philosophy which spans the Enlightenment to present day time period. The major philosophers discussed in this course include Kant, Marx, Darwin, Mill, Nietzsche and Sartre. The major topics explored include: Is there progress in history? What are the origins of our moral ideas? What rights do individuals have? Does life have meaning? |
PHIL 1100 Introduction to Philosophy: Problem and Themes (3,0,0) PHIL 1100 Introduction to Philosophy: Problem and Themes (3,0,0)Credits: 3 credits This course is a general introduction to philosophy. Questions that are typically discussed include: What is morality? Is there a God? Is there life after death? What can we know and how can we know it? What is the nature of reality? Is there free will? Are there fundamental rights? What constitutes a 'good life'? What is the nature of society? What form of government should we have? What is the relation of the mind to the body? What is art? Is censorship a good idea? Readings are taken from classic and/or modern texts.
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PHIL 1110 Introduction to Critical Thinking (3,0,0) PHIL 1110 Introduction to Critical Thinking (3,0,0)Credits: 3 credits Students access the basic blocks of knowledge building through an exploration of logical analysis. Students use the philosophical methodology of argument analysis to navigate issues presented in natural language and to resolve real world problems. Students examine the meaning of logical terms and philosophically investigate their contribution to arguments. Students give considerable attention to representing the logical structure of arguments and discovering their validity or invalidity.
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PHIL 2010 Introduction to Ethics (3,0,0) PHIL 2010 Introduction to Ethics (3,0,0)Credits: 3 credits Ethics is the philosophical examination of 'the good life', or the kind of life that is most worth living. It is also the study of the values by which we live, and the values of others. Students explore questions of right and wrong (morality), consider the place of morality in life as a whole, and whether life has meaning. In particular, students discuss the nature and origin of morality, and to what extent being moral is necessary to living a good life. |
PHIL 2150 Substance, Change, and Identity (3,0,0) PHIL 2150 Substance, Change, and Identity (3,0,0)Credits: 3 credits Students consider intriguing questions about what makes up reality and how reality works. Students explore topics that include matter and substance; change and causation; free will and determination; mind and body; being and consciousness; and the nature of time and space. |
PHIL 2210 Contemporary Moral Issues (HUM) (3,0,0) PHIL 2210 Contemporary Moral Issues (HUM) (3,0,0)Credits: 3 credits Students examine contemporary moral issues, such as abortion; euthanasia; capital punishment; environmental ethics;
business ethics; pornography and censorship; treatment of the mentally ill; patients' rights; and the ethics of warfare.
Students examine classical theories of ethics, and apply theories to contemporary problems. |
PHIL 2220 Elementary Formal Logic (3,0,0) PHIL 2220 Elementary Formal Logic (3,0,0)Credits: 3 credits Students engage in an introductory examination of contemporary symbolic or formal logic. Students explore the fundamentals of good reasoning by learning sentence and predicate logic. Students translate English sentences into logical notation, and use truth tables and derivations to demonstrate the validity of arguments.
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PHIL 3010 Ethics (3,0,0) PHIL 3010 Ethics (3,0,0)Credits: 3 credits Continuing from PHIL 2010 and PHIL 2210, this course is the advanced study of moral theory. Presented for analysis are meta-ethical theories concerning why we are moral beings, and several theories about how we decide what is right and wrong. In deciding good from bad, a number of theories have been established, all of which have something worthwhile to offer. Students investigate theories and philosophers which may include Mill, Kant, contractarianism, feminist ethics of care, relativism, and Aristotelian virtue ethics.
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PHIL 3750 Philosophy and Literature (3,0,0) PHIL 3750 Philosophy and Literature (3,0,0)Credits: 3 credits Students examine themes that are common to literature and philosophy in order to explore philosophical questions and problems. The topics and areas of emphasis change from year to year.
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PHIL 3900 ***Topics in Philosophy 3 (3,0,0) PHIL 3900 ***Topics in Philosophy 3 (3,0,0)Credits: 3 credits Students explore a special topic in Philosophy such as an in-depth analysis of an issue, school of thought, or a specific philosopher. Special topics courses may also be an opportunity for students to engage with evolving current issues. The specific topic(s) will be decided by the instructor and approved by the Department.
Prerequisities: Completion of 6 credits of PHIL courses. |
PHIL 4160 ***Topics in Nineteenth-Century Philosophy (3,0,0) PHIL 4160 ***Topics in Nineteenth-Century Philosophy (3,0,0)Credits: 3 credits This course offers an intensive study of Kant; a major nineteenth century philosopher such as Hegel, Mill or Nietzsche; or of a school of thought, such as German idealism. Topics vary from year to year.
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PHIL 4350 Environmental Ethics (3,0,0) PHIL 4350 Environmental Ethics (3,0,0)Credits: 3 credits This course offers a study of moral issues arising in the context of human relationships to nature and to non-human living things. Principal topics include the issue of what constitutes moral standing, animal rights, obligations to future generations, the moral dimensions of problems of pollution, the extraction, production and use of hazardous materials, the depletion of natural resources, and the treatment of non-living things.
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PHIL 4510 Persons, Minds and Bodies (3,0,0) PHIL 4510 Persons, Minds and Bodies (3,0,0)Credits: 3 credits Students explore consciousness and its relation to the body; personal identity and survival; knowledge of other minds; and psychological events and behaviour.
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PHIL 4910 ***Selected Topics in Philosophy (3,0,0) PHIL 4910 ***Selected Topics in Philosophy (3,0,0)Credits: 3 credits This course offers a focussed and detailed study of a specific topic or movement in philosophy, or a particular philosopher. The focus of the course changes from year to year, and the course topic subtitle is updated at each offering. A student may take this course twice providing the topic of study is different.
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PHIL 4390 Philosophy of Sex and Love (3,0,0) PHIL 4390 Philosophy of Sex and Love (3,0,0)Credits: 3 credits Students philosophically examine the factors involved in human romantic relationships; sex and love are analysed both together and separately. In such a dynamic and complicated field of study it is necessary to focus on some guiding topics such as, but not limited to, the nature of love, why we couple, polygamy, marriage, prostitution, perversion, and pornography. Students approach these topics from an ontological, social and moral perspective.
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