Typical topics: knowledge and belief, perception, the analytic-synthetic distinction, theories of truth, necessity and the a priori.

Typical topics: the brain-mind identity theory; consciousness intentionality and the mental; personal identity; the nature of human action.

(Formerly: Freedom, Responsibility, and Human Action) The course will cover various topics in action theory and the nature of practical reason, such as the nature of intentional action and intentional explanations, the relation between morality and practical reason, the distinction between theoretical and practical reasoning, and the relation between motivation and evaluation.

This course will examine the question of whether determinism is true, and to which extent and whether, determinism is compatible with the possibility that our will is free as well as the relation between freedom and responsibility. In particular, we will look at the plausibility of views such as compatibilism, hard determinism and libertarianism.

A continuation of PHL245, requiring no other prior knowledge of philosophy or mathematics. Symbolization, natural deduction, and models in polyadic predicate logic with operations and identity. Symbolization, natural deduction, and models for theories of descriptions. Introduction to metatheory, such as soundness and completeness.

An intermediate level look at reasoning and decision making in the face of uncertainty. Topics may include: decision theory, game theory, social choice theory, confirmation theory, foundations of probability and statistics, puzzles of infinity and self-location, and the relationship between knowledge and uncertainty.

Study of the concepts of necessity and possibility using extensions of classical logic: modal sentential logic, modal quantification logic, possible-world semantics, the metaphysics of modality. Other possible topics include: counterfactuals, epistemic logic, temporal logic, deontic logic, many-valued logic, and supervaluations.

Topics may include: Different approaches to the study of language; the analysis of central theoretical notions in the descriptions of language; the relation between thought and language; the relation between philosophy of language and metaphysics.

Platonism versus nominalism, the relation between logic and mathematics, implications of Godel's and Church's theorems, formalism and intuitionism.

Central problems and contemporary issues. Topics may include: scientific inference and method; explanation; under-determination; the pessimistic induction; constructive empiricism; entity realism; structural realism; laws of nature.

Conceptual issues in modern biology. Topics may include natural selection, biological kinds, the role of evolution in explaining human attributes such as rationality, cooperation, and communication, reductionism in molecular biology, and functional explanation in biology.

An examination of philosophical issues that arise in cognitive science, such as: the nature of consciousness, alternative models of computation in theories of cognition, the nature and function of perception and the emotions, the evolution of mind and language, and the relation among various fields of cognitive science such as psychology, linguistics, and neuroscience.

This course examines contemporary artificial intelligence from a philosophical perspective. Topics include: the nature of intelligence, comparisons between biological and artificial learning, linguistic understanding and grounding in foundation models, moral guidance for AI systems, and the moral status of artificial agents.

A study of work by political philosophers, typically both historical and contemporary, on topics such as justice, rights, welfare, and political authority. 

In this class we will consider the moral standards that govern states rights (if any) to enforce restrictions on immigration, residency, and citizenship and peoples rights (if any) to immigrate and emigrate. Questions to be considered include: Do people have a right to move wherever they want? Do the citizens of a state have a right to choose who will be their co-nationals? Do they have a right to prefer people of particular religious, cultural, ethnic, or political persuasions? Do people have a right to leave the country in which they are born? Do countries have special obligations to refugees who are the victims of human rights violations? Are economic migrants due the same rights? Is it morally permissible to grant lesser rights to would-be migrants than native born citizens? Is it acceptable to sell the right to citizenship or permanent residency?

This course will examine selected philosophical topics in feminism, such as multiculturalism and women's rights, feminist epistemologies, ethics of care, the intersection between sexism and other forms of oppression, pornography.

A study of major issues in the philosophy of law such as the nature of law, responsibility and punishment, the obligation to obey the law, and the moral underpinnings of particular areas of law (e.g. criminal, tort, contract). 

Normative Ethics concerns general questions about what makes actions right or wrong. Topics include, among others, the plausibility of various ethical theories such as consequentialism, deontology, and virtue ethics, and questions about the moral significance of distinctions such as doing vs allowing and intending vs foreseeing.

Metaethics concerns the place of values in the world, and the status of ethics as a field of inquiry. Topics may include: the objectivity of morality; moral psychology; the possibility of ethical knowledge; and meanings of ethical concepts.

A course primarily for Specialists and Majors in Philosophy. 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.

Advanced discussion of principal figures and themes in ancient or medieval philosophy.

Advanced discussion of philosophers and themes in the 17th and 18th century.

Advanced discussion of principal figures and themes in 19th and 20th century philosophy.

Advanced topics in metaphysics.

Advanced topics in epistemology.

Advanced topics in Philosophy of Mind.

A continuation of PHL345H5, this is a course in the mathematical study of logic, also known as meta-logic. We will investigate and prove theorems about logical systems. Topics covered will include: basic set theory and recursion theory, completeness, compactness, and the Loewenheim-Skolem theorems for first-order logic, and Gödel's incompleteness theorems.

Study of advanced topics in logic or the philosophy of logic.

Study of advanced topics in philosophy of language.

Study of advanced topics in the philosophy of science.