Upcoming Fall 2024 Feature Courses
Course offerings vary slightly from term to term. These descriptions below are specific to the fall 2024 term. For the official calendar descriptions see the Undergraduate Calendar
PHIL 121
Moral Issues
We occupy a lot of social roles in life: family member, worker, student, religious devotee, consumer, soldier, activist, medical patient, sexual partner, etc. In all of these roles, we can act well, or act poorly. Usually, we do a bit of both. Very few of us are miserable, horrible people; very few of us are saints. Most of us are somewhere in the middle, with good days and bad days.
In this class, we will discuss practical contexts in which questions of morality arise. Is it possible to be a responsible consumer? Do you have a duty to give to charity? Can we justify actions that further deteriorate the planet’s ecosystems? What do we owe non-human animals, given that they are moral beings capable of pleasure and pain? What obligations do we have to one another as lovers, friends, parents/children, and employers/employees? We will examine these questions, and many more, as we try to think about the good life in a world that often seems like it’s out of our moral control.
PHIL 145
Critical Thinking
All of us are entitled to our own opinions, but not all opinions are equal. Just because we believe something, that doesn’t make it so. Opinions that are based on empirical evidence (when empirical evidence is needed) are better than ones that are not. Opinions that are based on good inferences are better than ones that are not. Critical thinking is about how to reason with evidence and how to develop good inferential practices. In this course, we will look at what counts as good thinking and what counts as bad thinking, how to think well, how to decide what to accept, reject, or suspend judgment about, in a variety of contexts.
PHIL 221
Ethics
Moral philosophy is the systematic attempt to provide an answer to what is perhaps the most important question of all: how should we live our lives?
The first three sections of this course explore three of the major moral theories in the Western philosophical tradition: utilitarianism, deontology, and virtue ethics. Each theory articulates a very different vision of the good life, of the nature and value of happiness, and of what makes an action or a person morally good.
In the final section of the course, we will take up a range of very different skeptical challenges to the project of moral philosophy, including: can philosophical theorizing really help is with morality? How (if at all) are race and gender relevant to our moral thinking? Is morality really all that important, anyway?
PHIL 226
Biomedical Ethics
This course will introduce students to important ethical concepts through their application to difficult problems in the practice of the life sciences, medicine, institutionalized health care, and discourses about disordered bodies and minds and how they ought to be diagnosed and treated. Students will be asked to address several issues about which they may have firm beliefs. We will critically examine these beliefs, unveiling the pre-theoretical and conceptual presuppositions on which they rest.
The course will be loosely structured around the development of a human life, from embryonic development to end of life decision-making and criteria for determining death. Along the way, we will ask about limits on patient autonomy, the nature of informed consent, whether BIPoC and 2SLGBTQ+ folk get the institutional access to health care they need, and how we should think about human enhancement though medical technology (amongst many other issues).
PHIL 228
Ethics and AI
Is a robot about to steal your job? How good will "your" essay be if you get generative AI to write it? Can you fall in love with your digital concierge, and if so, how might you find intimacy in that relationship? Why are so many of us seemingly so willing to make ourselves the subjects of ubiquitous algorithmic surveillance on social media platforms (and beyond) when most of us profess to value privacy? Can machine learning algorithms be sexist, racist, ableist or transphobic?
This class will explore ethical issues related to our use of artificial intelligence. We will learn some of the basics of artificial intelligence, with a focus on recent machine learning techniques, in order to ground or primary discussions of topics at the intersection of ethics, justice, and emerging technologies.
PHIL 240
Intro to Formal Logic
When people arrive at implausible conclusions, it is common to say they are being “illogical.” This everyday use of the word takes being illogical to be the same thing as engaging in bad thinking. Being logical, then, would seem to amount to good thinking. This course is about how to make good inferences. We’ll be looking especially at those inferences which are, in a certain sense, the best possible—deductive inferences. These are the ones where the truth of the information we’re working with would guarantee the truth of the conclusions we draw from it. The systematic study of deductive inference is called formal logic.
PHIL 252/SCI 252
Quantum Mechanics for Everyone
Quantum mechanics is driving a technological revolution, and here in Waterloo we have front row seats. This course offers an introduction to the basic concepts of quantum mechanics from a historical and philosophical perspective. Topics will include Schrödinger's cat paradox, the debate between Einstein and Bohr, “spooky action at a distance,” and quantum computers. No background in mathematics or physics will be presupposed. The goal of the course is to supply the background needed to understand some of the principles behind the cutting-edge research being carried out at the Perimeter Institute and the University of Waterloo.
PHIL 257
Philosophy of Mathematics
What are numbers? What makes mathematical statements true or false? Are mathematical truths just true by definition or do they reflect substantive knowledge? Are mathematical statements just useful "fictions"? Is there something "miraculous" about the way mathematical concepts often have applicability far beyond the context in which they were originally developed? Discuss these questions and many more in philosophy of mathematics!
PHIL 363
Philosophy of Language: Online Discourse
Online discourse is widely blamed for some of the worst features of the world we live in—rising extremism, polarisation, and wild conspiracism. But is this right? We’ll take a deep dive into the nature of online communication, examining ways that it is and isn’t different from is offline counterpart. We’ll look at the ways that ideas spread online, difficulties of combatting online extremism, and the nature of online communities. We’ll be asking about questions like what trolling is, whether a re-tweet is an endorsement, and how online shaming works. The class will be discussion-based, and the main assignments will involve applying academic concepts to real world cases chosen by students.
Fall 2024 complete course list (subject to changes)
| Course code | Title |
|---|---|
| PHIL 101 | Challenging Ideas: Introduction to Philosophy |
| PHIL 121 | Moral Issues |
| PHIL 145 | Critical Thinking |
| PHIL 215/ARBUS 202 | Professional & Business Ethics |
| PHIL 221 | Ethics |
| PHIL 226 | Biomedical Ethics |
| PHIL 228 | Ethics and AI |
| PHIL 240 | Introduction to Formal Logic |
| PHIL 252 | Quantum Mechanics for Everyone |
| PHIL 255 | Philosophy of Mind |
| PHIL 257 | Philosophy of Mathematics |
| PHIL 363 | Philosophy of Language |
| PHIL 386 | Black Existentialist Thought |
| PHIL 402/GSJ 402 | Feminist Care Ethics |
| PHIL 422 | Formal Methods for Social Good |
| PHIL 447/PSYCH 447 | Cognitive Science Seminar |
| PHIL 452 | Epistemology of Ignorance |
|
Course code |
Title |
|---|---|
| PHIL 110 B | Introduction to Philosophy: Ethics and Values |
| PHIL 145 | Critical Thinking |
| PHIL 215/ARBUS 202 | Professional & Business Ethics |
| PHIL 251 | Metaphysics & Epistemology |
| PHIL 256/ PSYCH 256 | Introduction to Cognitive Science |
| PHIL 265 | The Existential Experience |
| PHIL 327 | Philosophy of Law |
CLICK HERE for descriptions of each course