17th and 18th century discussions of topics like causation, knowledge, mind-body dualism in philosophers like René Descartes, Princess Elisabeth, Baruch Spinoza, John Locke, Anne Conway, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Émilie du Chatelêt, David Hume, Immanuel Kant.

This course examines world mythology from a philosophical perspective. Students will study selected cultural myths, using them to explore questions about reality, knowledge, and morality. The course will also look at modern philosophical practices, especially in Romantic and post-Romantic traditions, that seek to reinterpret or create myths that privilege human creativity, expression, and the power of imagination. We’ll ask: What philosophical value does mythology hold for us on a personal level, as individuals, and on a social level, as human beings?

An introduction to existential themes in philosophy. Topics will vary from year to year, including the search for meaning, the purpose of life, faith, freedom, death, sexuality, art, and the imagination. Philosophical texts may be supplemented with literature, poetry, and film.

This course considers fundamental philosophical themes - the meaning of life and death, the nature of responsibility, fate and agency, knowledge and illusion, personal identity, alienation and belonging, love and sex, politics, ethics, and morality, among others - through film. The course also considers some questions about film as a philosophical genre: of the medium of film as an alternative medium (an alternative to language and explicit argument) of philosophical expression; of whether and how film may convey philosophical insight otherwise unavailable; and of the role of interpretation in understanding film philosophically.

An introduction to philosophy tailored for students with backgrounds in mathematics and science. Topics include causation, explanation, the relation between scientific and mathematical theories and reality, the role of mathematics in scientific theories, the relevance of scientific and mathematical discoveries to ‘big’ traditional philosophical questions such as the nature of consciousness, whether we have free will, and the meaning of life.

A philosophical analysis of some basic theological questions; the nature of religious belief and experience, the relationship between religion and morality, or religion and science, the role of religion in a pluralistic society.

An introduction to the main systems of East Asian philosophy, including Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, Shintoism, and Neo-Confucianism; the challenge of Western thought; the development of modern East Asian Philosophy.

An introduction to the main philosophical traditions of South Asia, focusing on their historical development and treatment of topics such as devotion, duty, ethics, consciousness, selfhood, suffering, meditation, enlightenment, knowledge, and reality. Readings may include the early Rig Veda, the Upanishads, early Buddhist thought, Jainism, Samkhya-Yoga Philosophy, and Classical Vedanta, among others.

The purpose of this course is to help you get good at reasoning critically in your everyday life. By the end of this course, you will have the tools to distinguish between good arguments and bad ones; determine the acceptability and adequacy of the reasons that people use to support their conclusions; recognize common errors in reasoning; and thoughtfully reconstruct the arguments of others. Topics include criteria for the critical assessment of arguments as logically strong or merely persuasive; different types of argument and techniques of refutation; and their use and abuse.

Can machines think and feel? Are human beings simply very complicated organic machines? These questions are discussed in the light of recent work on the simulation of intelligence and purposive behaviour.

This course examines ethical issues relating to artificial intelligence (AI), such as algorithmic bias, explainability and accountability in AI decision-making, trust in AI systems, relationships between humans and AI, the effects of AI on human labour, and the alignment between AI and human values.

Science fiction is a rich resource for philosophical thinking. Are we in a matrix? Are there alternative realities? Is teleportation, or telepathy, or telekinesis, or time travel, possible? In addition, philosophical thought experiments often include elements of science fiction, like twin-earths, zombies, swamp people, inverted spectra, brain-splitting, eternal recurrences, and evil demons. This course considers these topics -- both some philosophy of science fiction and some science fiction in philosophy.

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; theories of psycho-sexual development; sexual morality; "natural," "normal," and "perverse" sex; sexual liberation; love and sexuality.

Theories of human nature, e.g., psychoanalysis, behaviourism, sociobiology. Current issues, e.g., egoism and altruism, instincts, I.Q., rationality, sanity and mental illness.

An introduction to formal deductive logic. Semantics, symbolization, and techniques of natural deduction in sentential logic. Symbolization, natural deduction, and models in monadic predicate logic. Symbolization and natural deduction with polyadic predicates. Introduction to advanced concepts in first-order logic, such as operations, identity, and models.

The elements of axiomatic probability theory, and its main interpretations (frequency, logical, subjective). Reasoning with probabilities in decision making and science.

This course is an introduction to contemporary topics in the philosophy of science which serves as preparation for more advanced study in general philosophy of science and philosophy of the particular sciences. Topics may include the rise and fall of logical positivism, the problem of demarcation, falsificationism, confirmation, the connection between theory and observation, the value free ideal, and the epistemic authority of scientists.

Philosophy often begins with a puzzle or paradox. Zeno of Elea seemed to give a convincing argument that motion was impossible, but people continue to move. The "liar's paradox" seems to show that everything is both true and false, but that cannot be right. In this course, we will examine how puzzles and paradoxes drive philosophical inquiry into their solutions.

A survey of the major political theorists/theories. Questions to be addressed include: Why obey the law? What is justice? What is the best form of government?

Main types of feminist theory: liberal, Marxist, Existential and "Radical." A number of ethical, political and psychological issues are considered.

Moral issues in the law, such as civil liberties and police powers, censorship, civil disobedience, the death penalty, inequality, paternalism and the constitutional protection of human rights. Case studies from Canadian law.

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.

Environmental ethics is a relatively new development in philosophical thinking which focuses on the ethical and value questions arising from our relation to nature. Focal question of the area asks: Is the non-human world of ethical significance only insofar as it is connected with human well-being, or is ethically significant in itself? This course investigates and evaluates anthropocentrim, ecofeminism and radical biocentric theories of the deep ecologists.

The course explores ethical problems posed by social issues such as inequality, poverty, war, corporate responsibility, the treatment of animals, and social media, against the background of major ethical and political theories.

A survey of the major moral theorists/theories of the Western philosophical tradition. Questions to be addressed include: Why be moral? What makes certain actions right or wrong? Can we know what is morally right or wrong?

An intermediate-level study of moral and legal problems, including the philosophical significance of death, the high-tech prolongation of life, definition and determination of death, suicide, active and passive euthanasia, the withholding of treatment, palliative care and the control of pain, living wills; recent judicial decisions.

Moral implications of recent developments in medicine and the life sciences; related legal and social issues. Euthanasia, health care priorities, abortion, fertility control, against the background of some major ethical theories.

What obligations do we have in light of the effects of our food choices? Do we have any obligations to non-human animals; are we obliged to spare them painful lives and deaths? Are we obligated to spare their lives altogether? What about our obligations to our fellow humans, and to the environment that future humans will live in? Are we obligated to choose foods that minimize harm to the environment and to other communities? We will explore these questions at both the individual and the social-policy levels. For example, should we as a society have laws that ban certain foods, or certain treatments of animals? Or do such laws trample the freedom of individual choice? Whatever laws we do have, are we as individuals obliged to take responsibility for what we eat? Or are the effects of our choices just an insignificant drop in the bucket, since they make no real difference given what everyone else is doing?

A study of some of the most important philosophical questions about art. For example, what exactly is a work of art? Can any object whatsoever be, or become, an artwork? Who or what determines whether something is art? Does each person decide for themselves, or does a certain community (the "art world") decide? Can one interpretation or evaluation of a work be better, or more justified, than another? If so, how do we tell which one is better?

Topic to vary from year to year. The contact hours for this course may vary in terms of contact type (L,S,T,P) from year to year, but will be between 24-36 contact hours in total. See the UTM Timetable.