Philosophy (PHIL)

PHIL 1200  Critical Thinking    
6 credit hours  
This course is an introduction to essential principles of reasoning and critical thinking. It is designed to develop students’ abilities to evaluate various forms of reasoning, to examine critically beliefs, conventions, and theories, and to develop sound arguments. Emphasis will be given to decision-making and arguments in ordinary language, particularly those addressed to issues of public concern and moral debate.
PHIL 1201  Introduction to Philosophy    
6 credit hours  
Philosophy is devoted to the critical and creative examination of such fundamental questions as: What can be known? Does existence have meaning? What is a worthwhile life? What moral obligations do people have to one another? What makes a society just? Philosophy provides systematic training in the framing of these questions and in the rigorous analysis of the issues they involve.
Note: Students cannot receive credit for PHIL 1306 or PHIL 1600 if they receive credit for PHIL 1201 and vice versa; however, students can receive credit for both PHIL 1306 and PHIL 1600.
PHIL 1222  Ethics for Modern Life    
6 credit hours  
The course examines competing moral perspectives on topics such as capital punishment, suicide, euthanasia, abortion, genetic engineering, friendship, marriage, parenthood, discrimination, inequality, poverty, foreign aid, and the environment. The aim is to help the student to develop a coherent set of principles to deal with these and other topics.
PHIL 1244  Human Freedom    
3 credit hours  
The traditional problems of free will and political freedom and different concepts and conceptions of freedom and liberation are considered. In addition, there will be an examination of some contemporary thought on freedom and liberation.
PHIL 1245  Philosophies of Life    
3 credit hours  
An examination of the major philosophies of life and an assessment of the reasons for and against their adoption. Consideration will be given to various forms of collectivism and individualism and to various views of what is ultimately worth striving for.
PHIL 1246  Sex and Sexuality    
3 credit hours  
The philosophy of sex and sexuality concerns the nature and moral significance of sexual behaviors. Topics may include the concept of sex, sexual identity, sex and love, sex and marriage, rape, and prostitution.
PHIL 1248  Killing and Letting Die    
3 credit hours  
When, if ever, is it morally permissible to kill another human being, or yourself? What is morally problematic about killing? Is killing morally worse than letting die? Are we morally obligated to prevent as many deaths as we can? This course explores these questions and others through a discussion of classical and contemporary philosophical readings.
PHIL 1255  Scientific Method  PHYS 1370  
3 credit hours  
This course provides a historical and logical analysis of methods commonly used in science. Possible topics include science vs. pseudo-science, natural vs. social sciences, modes of reasoning, observation and experimentation, construction and empirical testing of theories and models, and thought experiments.
PHIL 1304  Propaganda and Truth    
3 credit hours  
Is truth relative to cultures or ways of seeing the world? Is objectivity a fiction? Is the claim to have the truth merely a tactic of manipulation? Is sincere advocacy just another form of propaganda? These are a few of the questions we will ask in this course.
PHIL 1306  Reality, Thinking, and the Self    
3 credit hours  
Does God exist? Do souls exist? What is the self? Could a computer ever think? What can we know about reality? Students explore these questions and others through a discussion of classical and contemporary philosophical readings.
Note: Students cannot receive credit for PHIL 1306 or PHIL 1600 if they receive credit for PHIL 1201 and vice versa; however, students can receive credit for both PHIL 1306 and PHIL 1600.
PHIL 1360  Autonomy and Education    
3 credit hours  
Students will examine autonomy as a concept, and evaluate its appropriateness as an educational goal. Students will be challenged to consider the role of education in their personal growth and development, as well as possibilities for their own agency in this development.
PHIL 1600  The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly    
3 credit hours  
Are such values such as good and bad, or beautiful and ugly, a part of the nature of the world or do they exist only in our minds? What is the role of pleasure and virtue, or knowledge and beauty in a life well lived? Students consider the work of moral philosophers and philosophers of art who try to identify the concepts and principles that help us to answer these questions.
Note: Students cannot receive credit for PHIL 1306 or PHIL 1600 if they receive credit for PHIL 1201 and vice versa; however, students can receive credit for both PHIL 1306 and PHIL 1600.

PHIL 1800 – 1825 Special Topics in Philosophy
6 credit hours
Course content varies from year to year.

PHIL 1826 – 1849 Special Topics in Philosophy
3 credit hours
Course content varies from year to year.

PHIL 2301  Introduction to Symbolic Logic    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 24 credit hours
This course introduces the fundamentals of symbolic logic. Both the propositional and predicate calculus are covered as well as various standard proof techniques.
PHIL 2302  Ethics    
6 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 9 credit hours
An introduction to moral philosophy designed to lead the student to examine the foundations of their moral positions. To this end historical and contemporary answers by philosophers to questions such as the following will be examined: What ought I to do morally and ultimately why I ought to do it? Are ethical positions simply relative: (a) to a person? (b) to a society? What is the relation between science and morality? Why be moral?
PHIL 2303  Right and Wrong    
3 credit hours  
Students examine theories of right and wrong. Some of the questions students will discuss include: do the ends justify the means? Is right and wrong relative to a culture? Can we justify a particular set of moral rules? Is deception always morally wrong? When, if ever, is killing morally permissible?
Note: Students cannot receive credit for both PHIL 2303 and PHIL 2302.
PHIL 2304  Evil    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 9 credit hours
This course is about the nature and significance of evil events, actions, characters, and institutions. Topics include historical accounts of evil, suffering, skepticism about evil, evil and mental illness, terrorism, torture, and genocide.
PHIL 2305  Environmental Ethics    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 9 credit hours
The nature of the ecological crisis will be examined. Philosophical responses to it will be presented which will involve analysis of the concepts of animal rights, of the intrinsic value of nature, and of obligations to future generations. A portion of the course will be spent on the application of the theoretical concepts to specific ecological issues including population and world hunger, pollution, and the sustainable society. Part of the objective of the applied section will be to raise issues of public policy within a philosophical framework.
PHIL 2307  Happiness    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 9 credit hours
Students ask the questions, “What is happiness?” and “How can I live a happy life”? These questions will be approached through a mixture of historical and contemporary texts, as well as theoretical and empirically informed writings. Students will consider how philosophical accounts of happiness apply to their own lives.
PHIL 2311  Political Philosophy: The Classic Texts    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 9 credit hours
A critical examination of core works in the history of political philosophy. Philosophers discussed often include Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Mill, Rousseau, Marx, and Nietzsche.
PHIL 2312  Contemporary Political Philosophy    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 9 credit hours
This course introduces students to the major schools of contemporary political thought, such as utilitarianism, liberal egalitarianism, libertarianism, Marxism, communitarianism, and feminism. Among the issues addressed are the justification of state power, the role of human nature in determining political arrangements, democracy and the rights of minorities, the tension between liberty and equality, and the just distribution of resources.
PHIL 2318  Science and Society    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 9 credit hours
This course studies science in its social context. Contemporary and historical case studies provide a basis for examining effects of scientific and technological innovation on society, whether social values are implicated in scientific discovery and justification, and ways in which social and economic institutions shape scientific practice.
PHIL 2319  The Meanings of Technology    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 9 credit hours
Students consider such topics as: the relations among science, technology, and engineering, the centrality of design to technology, the virtues and vices of looking for technological solutions to human problems, the technological world-view, technology and sex or gender, and technology and risk.
PHIL 2327  Classic Readings in Philosophy of Mind    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 9 credit hours
Students will study writings on mind by important philosophers from antiquity to the twentieth century.
PHIL 2328  The Mind-Body Problem    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 9 credit hours
What is the relation between your thoughts and feelings and whatever is happening simultaneously in your brain and the rest of your body? This course introduces students to arguments for and against a variety of answers to this question.
PHIL 2329  Thoughts, Emotions, and Intentions    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 9 credit hours
Students in this course investigate the nature of consciousness, feelings, and motivation.
PHIL 2330  Philosophy of Religion    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 9 credit hours
A philosophical examination of the nature and rationality of religious belief and practices.
PHIL 2331  Business Ethics    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 9 credit hours
An examination of the extent to which business objectives can, must, or do conflict with moral objectives, and of the extent to which business organizations can be brought into harmony with moral objectives. This will involve treatment of the relevant aspects of ethical theory.
PHIL 2332  Ethics and Criminal Law    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 9 credit hours
Students study topics related to the criminal justice system, including settler and Indigenous definitions of crime, police, courts, and prisons. Ethical questions about these legal topics, considering both defences and critiques of the Canadian system, exploring alternative systems, and attempting to discover what true justice looks like are raised.
PHIL 2334  Health Care Ethics and the Law    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 9 credit hours in any courses in the Faculty of Arts
Students consider ethical and legal questions about the delivery of healthcare, including questions about caring for the vulnerable while respecting their dignity, assessing the values involved in decisions about the end of life, and how healthcare would be delivered in a just society.
PHIL 2335  Ethics of Common and Constitutional Law    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 9 credit hours
Students are introduced to ethical issues within constitutional and common law to answer the following questions: Does the Charter protect human rights? When is it ethical to sue another individual (or corporation) for trespass, defamation, or negligence? How might we change these legal systems to better serve the public good?
PHIL 2345  Greek Philosophy: The Presocratics and Plato  ANCS 2345  
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 9 credit hours
Students examine Greek philosophy before the time of Socrates followed by careful readings of selected dialogues by Plato.
PHIL 2346  Greek Philosophy: Aristotle and The Hellenists  ANCS 2346  
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 9 credit hours
Students study Aristotle’s views (focusing on topics in metaphysics, psychology, knowledge, and ethics), together with a brief examination of several Hellenistic philosophers.
PHIL 2349  Arguing about Art    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 9 credit hours
Students address a number of topics concerning the arts that preoccupy contemporary philosophers, such as: the art instinct, our emotional engagement with fiction, the enjoyment of horror, the aesthetics of photography, everyday aesthetics, public art, the role of museums, and outsider art.
PHIL 2358  Philosophy of Human Nature    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 9 credit hours
Is there such a thing as a fixed and essential human nature? If so, what is it? What are we like as beings in the universe, on earth, in history? This course will consider a range of classical and contemporary responses to these questions. Included among the views that will be addressed are those of Aristotle, Hobbes, Rousseau, Darwin, Marx, and Freud, as well as existentialist, behaviorist, and feminist accounts.
PHIL 2362  Philosophy and Literature    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 9 credit hours
Works that have been discussed in recent years include: Shakespeare’s King Lear, Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus, Melville’s Billy Budd, Conrad’s Lord Jim, Walker Percy’s The Moviegoer, Tom Stoppard’s Jumpers, and Richard Ford’s The Sportswriter. Students seek to answer philosophical questions about literature. For instance, what cognitive and moral values are associated with our reading of literature? How do we explain our emotional reactions to fictional works? Why do we enjoy the experiences elicited by literary tragedy and horror?
PHIL 2365  Philosophy of Education: Classic Texts    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 9 credit hours
A critical examination of influential works in the history of educational thought.
PHIL 2368  Bioethics    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 9 credit hours
Students consider the following ethical and legal questions that arise from developments in biotechnology and the biomedical sciences: What are appropriate guidelines for human and animal experimentation? Should limits be placed on the use of reproductive and genetic technologies? How should genetic engineering be used in agriculture?
PHIL 2385  Philosophical Issues in Feminism    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 9 credit hours
This course examines philosophical issues in feminism, such as sexism, oppression, social construction, essentialism, gender, race, and class. Attention is paid to ties between theory and practice.
PHIL 2401  Games and Sport    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 9 credit hours
Students examine questions such as: Are all sports games? What is a game? What ethical constraints should be imposed on participants in games and sports? What values should games and sports encourage?
PHIL 2456  The Meaning of Life    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 9 credits hours
Does life have a meaning? How can you live your life authentically? What defines who you are? Students examine answers to these questions from the nineteenth- and twentieth-century existentialist and alternative traditions (including, e.g., Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre, de Beauvoir, and Camus).

PHIL 2800 – 2825 Special Topics in Philosophy
6 credit hours
Course content varies from year to year.

PHIL 2826 – 2849 Special Topics in Philosophy
3 credit hours
Course content varies from year to year. 

PHIL 3000  Metaphysics    
6 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 6 credit hours in PHIL
Metaphysics seeks to determine whether we can know any general truths about the world. What is it to exist? What is it to be an individual? What are the fundamental kinds of things and relations? Consideration is given to the principal metaphysical theories that form part of the Western philosophical tradition, e.g., materialism, idealism, dualism, and monism. The course will also consider the major problems and concepts of metaphysics, e.g., time, space, substance, essence, free will, determinism, and causality.
PHIL 3200  Environmental Aesthetics    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 6 credit hours in PHIL
Environmental Aesthetics is concerned with aesthetic appreciation of nature and human-made or human-influenced environments. Topics will include the nature and value of natural beauty, the relationship between art appreciation and nature appreciation, the role of knowledge in the aesthetic appreciation of nature, and the importance of environmental participation to the appreciation of environments.
PHIL 3317  Wealth, Money, and Economics    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 6 credit hours in PHIL
Students explore various views on the nature and value of both wealth and money. In addition, attention will be paid to what economic rights are and which ones best serve social interests. No knowledge of economics is presupposed.
PHIL 3333  Philosophy of Law (formerly PHIL 2333)    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 6 credit hours in PHIL
Topics covered often include natural law theory, legal positivism, the separability thesis, relations between law and morality, legal interpretation, the economic analysis of the law, and legal skepticism.
PHIL 3348  Aesthetics    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 6 credit hours in PHIL
Students examine philosophical aesthetics. Topics include: representation, expression, the cognitive aspects of art and aesthetic experience, the logic of taste, aesthetic value, and the relation between art and emotion, as well as the nature of certain art forms, like those of literature, architecture, and dance.
PHIL 3351  Language and Cognition  LING 3351, PSYC 3301  
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: LING 1200 and at least twelve (12) credit hours at or above the 2000 level in LING/PHIL/PSYCH, or permission of the instructor
The course is an exploration of relationships between language and cognition from perspectives of in linguistics, philosophy and cognitive neurosciences. The course goals include outlining current debates about the relationships between language and cognition and developing understanding of some of the linguistic, behavioural, and neurocognitive evidences that might support (or not) particular claims.
PHIL 3365  Philosophical Foundations of Education    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 6 credit hours in PHIL
This course is an enquiry into the nature and aims of education. Topics considered will include analyses of the concept of education, evaluation of contrasting views about what constitutes an ideal education, and implications of various theories of knowledge for methods of teaching and learning. Selections from historical and contemporary thinkers will be studied.
PHIL 3375  Philosophy and Film    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 6 credit hours in PHIL
This course will deal with philosophical questions concerning, or arising in, film. These include general issues of perspective, evidence, knowledge, and objectivity, as well as more specific questions, such as: What is the nature of representation in film? Can film be construed as a language? What constitutes uniqueness in film? What constitutes excellence? What is the logic of film criticism? These and other questions will be addressed in an effort to clarify the nature of the relation between philosophy and film.
PHIL 3402  Philosophy of Language    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 6 credit hours in PHIL
How is it that words and sentences mean what they do? One answer to this question is that linguistic meaning is determined by the speaker’s intentions; another is that it is determined by social practices. Each answer raises issues regarding the relation of language to both thought and reality.
PHIL 3404  Theory of Knowledge    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 6 credit hours in PHIL
This course examines the various concepts of human knowledge and attempts to find the limits of that knowledge. Traditional approaches to problems in the theory of knowledge will be considered as well as current work.
PHIL 3405  Ethics of Belief    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 6 credit hours in PHIL
We commonly evaluate beliefs as rational or irrational; justified or unjustified; responsible or irresponsible. But what do these terms mean and when are they correctly applied? Can beliefs be ethical? These and related questions are debated by contemporary epistemologists. This course seeks to interpret and assess the main competing views.
PHIL 3413  Intermediate Logic    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: PHIL 2301
This course continues and develops the work of PHIL 2301. It offers students of all faculties opportunities for further growth in reasoning skills, in part through supervised practice in the logical appraisal of extracts from a variety of important writings. Some branches of logic are developed beyond the level of PHIL 2301. The complete predicate calculus (with identity) is applied to arguments of ordinary English. Inductive logic, and practically significant areas of logical theory, are developed considerably. Scientific method and the general methods of some other disciplines are analyzed in some depth.
PHIL 3415  Argumentation Theory    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: PHIL 1200
Contemporary argumentation theory draws upon several disciplines: philosophy of language, cognitive psychology, feminist philosophy, and communications theory. This course will examine the concept of argument through the lens provided by argumentation theorists. Alternative conceptions of argument will be critically examined and an overview of the development of argumentation theory will be provided.
PHIL 3442  Early Modern Philosophy: The Rationalists    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 6 credit hours in PHIL
A critical examination of the works from this movement, focusing on the areas of metaphysics and epistemology. Descartes, Malebranche, Spinoza, and Leibniz are among the philosophers typically studied.
PHIL 3443  Early Modern Philosophy: The Empiricists    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 6 credit hours in PHIL
A critical examination of the works from this movement, focusing on the areas of metaphysics and epistemology. Hobbes, Locke, Berkeley, and Hume are among the philosophers typically studied.
PHIL 3444  Later Modern Philosophy: Kant    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 6 credit hours in PHIL
A lecture and seminar course on Kant’s theory of knowledge.
PHIL 3446  Kant and Nineteenth-Century Philosophy    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 6 credit hours in Philosophy
Students examine the philosophy of Immanuel Kant and a selection of nineteenth-century philosophers. Topics include the “death of God”, the relation of philosophy to other disciplines and practices (history, psychology, religion, and art), the nature of scientific knowledge, and the natures of objectivity and subjectivity.
PHIL 3447  Philosophy & the Scientific Revolution    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 6 credit hours in Philosophy
Students examine the philosophical repercussions of the scientific revolution in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Topics include the relation between science and religion, human freedom, and the foundations of science. Philosophers covered may include, Bacon, Descartes, Elisabeth, Spinoza, Conway, Cavendish, Locke, Berkeley, Leibniz, Châtelet, and Hume.
PHIL 3448  Philosophy of Science    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 6 credit hours in PHIL
An introduction to the main problems of the philosophy of science designed to familiarize students with some of the contemporary analyses of scientific concepts and methods.
PHIL 3454  Philosophy of History    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 6 credit hours in PHIL
A critical study of the philosophical views on the course of human history (its pattern, purpose, and value) and an examination of the aim, nature, and validity of historical knowledge.
PHIL 3455  Existentialism: The 19th Century    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 6 credit hours in PHIL
A lecture and seminar course examining the 19th century origins of the existentialist movement in contemporary philosophy, with specific investigation of the writings of Kierkegaard and Nietzsche.
PHIL 3456  Existentialism: The 20th Century    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 6 credit hours in PHIL
A lecture and seminar course examining the 20th century expression of the existentialist movement in contemporary philosophy, through close study of the writings of Heidegger, Sartre, Camus, and others.
PHIL 3457  Continental Philosophy    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 6 credit hours in PHIL
This course is a study of one or more topics or figures in recent or contemporary phenomenology, hermeneutics, or deconstruction. Philosophers discussed in the course may include Husserl, Heidegger, Gadamer, Levinas, Foucault, and Derrida.
PHIL 3470  Normative Ethical Theories    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 6 credit hours in PHIL
This course is a critical investigation of normative ethical theories, such as theories about what makes right actions right, good states of affairs good, and virtuous people virtuous. The theories discussed may include: those that evaluate the morality of actions based on their consequences, those that evaluate the morality of actions based on intrinsic features such as whether they respect autonomy, and those that evaluate the morality of actions based on the sorts of people who characteristically perform such actions.
PHIL 3471  Meta-Ethics    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 6 credit hours in PHIL
Students investigate the nature of morality, assessing rival theories. Topics include moral language and moral reasoning. Students analyse key moral concepts, such as obligation and virtue.
PHIL 3472  Foundation of Ethics    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 6 credit hours in PHIL
Starting from the question “Why be moral?”, students assess rival accounts of the foundations of morality. Topics may include the relations between ethical values and other values and the place of ethical commitment in a life experienced as worth living.
PHIL 3474  Moral Responsibility    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 6 credit hours in PHIL
Students consider questions such as: When are we morally responsible for what we do? When do we share responsibility for a harm that has been brought about by a collective? Should we hold organizations morally responsible for wrongfully causing harm? Can the moral responsibility of organizations always be reduced to the moral responsibility of individual members?
PHIL 3475  Moral Psychology    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 6 credit hours in PHIL
Moral psychology is an interdisciplinary study that draws on empirical research about human psychology and behavior and conceptual work in philosophical ethics.

PHIL 3800 – 3825 Special Topics in Philosophy
6 credit hours
Prerequisite: 9 credit hours in PHIL including 3 hours at the 2000 level or above
These courses focus on a topic of research interest to the professor. The topics will vary from year to year.

PHIL 3826 – 3849 Special Topics in Philosophy
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: 9 credit hours in PHIL including 3 hours at the 2000 level or above
These courses focus on a topic of research interest to the professor. The topics will vary from year to year.

PHIL 3850-3875 Directed Study: Reading Courses in Philosophy
6 credit hours
Prerequisite: Six (6) credit hours in PHIL, consent of instructor, and permission of Chairperson
The subject matter of this course will be determined by the student in consultation with the instructor.

PHIL 3876-3899 Directed Study: Reading Courses in Philosophy
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: Six (6) credit hours in PHIL, consent of instructor, and permission of Chairperson
The subject matter of this course will be determined by the student in consultation with the instructor.

PHIL 4514  Philosophy of Biology    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 12 credit hours in PHIL including 6 hours at the 2000 level or above
The course explores methodological, conceptual, metaphysical, and epistemological questions that arise in modern biology. Possible topics include scientific revolutions, experimentation, biological laws, theoretical modeling, objectivity, reductionism, species concepts, evolution vs. creationism, human nature, and biological theories of gender, race, and sexuality.
PHIL 4515  Philosophy of Physics  PHYS 4370  
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: PHYS 2410, PHYS 3500 and PHIL prerequisites as outlined in paragraph 8 in the Philosophy Calendar entry; or permission of the instructors
This course explores methodological, conceptual, metaphysical, and epistemological questions that arise in modern physics. Possible topics include scientific revolutions, experimentation, laws of nature, space, time, matter, causality, indeterminism, non-locality, thought experiments, and theoretical unification.
PHIL 4525  International Justice    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 12 credit hours in PHIL including 6 hours at the 2000 level or above
This course will consider how major theories of justice such as Kantian constructivism, economic contractarianism, and utilitarianism deal with important issues in international justice such as the law of peoples, distributive justice, human rights, and democratization.
PHIL 4528  Topics in Moral, Political, and Legal Philosophy    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 12 credit hours in PHIL including 6 hours at the 2000 level or above.
An intensive study of one or more topics in moral, political, and/or legal philosophy.
PHIL 4565  Pragmatism    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 12 credit hours in PHIL including 6 credit hours at the 2000 level or above
Students read the founding texts of pragmatism from the late-19th and early-20th centuries (e.g., by Peirce, James, and Dewey). Students analyze the pragmatist critique of traditional western philosophical ideas about meaning, truth, reality, foundations of knowledge, and practice. Students examine the historical reception of pragmatism and assess its continuing importance.
PHIL 4566  Analytical Philosophy    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 12 credit hours in PHIL including 6 hours at the 2000 level or above
A lecture and seminar course that examines the origins, expressions, and significance of the contemporary analytic movement in philosophy.
PHIL 4585  Feminist Philosophy    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 12 credit hours in PHIL including 6 hours at the 2000 level or above
This course examines the contributions of feminist philosophers to historical and contemporary philosophical thought in diverse areas of inquiry, such as ethics, political theory, metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of science, and philosophy of mind.
PHIL 4590  Topics in Social Philosophy    
3 credit hours  
Prerequisite: 12 credit hours in PHIL including 6 hours at the 2000 level or above
Students engage in an intensive study of one or more topics in social philosophy. Social Philosophy is broadly defined as the study of conceptual and normative issues concerning social relationships, practices, and institutions.
PHIL 4599  Honours Thesis PHIL    
6 credit hours  
Prerequisite: Honours standing in philosophy
Honours students have the option of completing a thesis on an approved topic. The permission of the Chairperson of the Department and the availability of a thesis supervisor are required.

PHIL 4800 - 4825 Special Topics in Philosophy
6 credit hours
Prerequisite: 12 credit hours in PHIL including 6 hours at the 2000 level or above
These courses focus on a topic of research interest to the professor.  The topics will vary from year to year.

PHIL 4826 - 4849 Special Topics in Philosophy
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: 12 credit hours in PHIL including 6 hours at the 2000 level or above
These courses focus on a topic of research interest to the professor.  The topics will vary from year to year.