Undergraduate courses

FALL FEATURES (complete list of courses below)

a cat who's head is exploding in a puff of smoke

PHIL 256/ PSYC 256 introduction to Cognitive Science

This course will be a general introduction to the main themes at the heart of cognitive science. A relatively new scientific discipline, coming from a wide array of disciplinary backgrounds, including philosophy, psychology, linguistics, anthropology, computer engineering and AI research, mathematics, and neuroscience (to name but a few). While cognitive science gets its proper start after the Second World War, we will see how it has roots that run back as deep as the ancient Greeks, most of the course will be focussed on topics of much more recent vintage, regarding the computational-representational theory of mind, the structure of mental representations themselves, how we might formalize cognition, how we process mental imagery, the computability of emotions as mental states, and whether cognition takes place entirely in the head or whether it stretches out over an organism’s environment, maybe even the organism’s social world!



 

two parrots talking with speech bubble that says "I'm telling the truth"

PHIL 363 Lies, Misinformation, And Their Spread

This course will discuss a variety of issues in the philosophy of language related to deception and falsehood.  We’ll tackle distinctions between lying, misleading, and bullshit, then move on to questions about their moral and political significance.  We’ll discuss whether it’s possible for chatbots to lie or mislead, and look at the ways that misinformation spreads through a variety of media—from one-on-one conversations to writing, to broadcast, to social media.  As an applied philosophy of language class, our focus will be on applying theoretical concepts to real-world cases.

 

a bowl of soup with many spoons of different sizes, one spoon has holes in it

PHIL 324 Social and Political Philosophy

How is political authority justified?  What is a just society? Students in this course will study a sample of key historical and contemporary texts addressing these questions, with an emphasis on liberal egalitarianism and its critics. A central focus of the course investigates the tension between natural freedom and political authority. We will look at various historical approaches to this tension on our way considering contemporary political philosophies that seek to resolve the tension in terms of considerations of egalitarian fairness. The later part of the course looks at criticisms of liberal egalitarian philosophy from work in feminism, disability theory, and racial justice. Theoretical developments that come from those criticisms are also examined. The themes of the course will be engaged critically, both in terms of readings that express opposing views and in terms of student's own critical engagement with the issues in written work.

 


 

Philosophy undergraduate course information

Email us for any questions regarding the course schedule.



Fall 2023 courses

Course code Title
PHIL 101 Challenging Ideas
PHIL 121 Moral Issues
PHIL 145 Critical Thinking

PHIL 206    CANCELED

Philosophy of Sport
PHIL 215 Professional and Business Ethics
PHIL 226 Biomedical Ethics
PHIL 240 Intro to Formal Logic
PHIL 251 Metaphysics and Epistemology
PHIL 256 Intro to Cognitive Science
PHIL 324 Social and Political Philosophy
PHIL 363 Philosophy of Language
PHIL 458 Philosophy of Applied Mathematics
PHIL 471 Education: Tool of State or Tool of Resistance

 

Fall 2023 online courses

Course code Title
PHIL 110A Intro to Philosophy: Knowledge and Reality
PHIL 110B Intro to Philosophy: Ethics and Values
PHIL 201 Philosophy of Sex and Love
PHIL 215 Professional and Business Ethics
PHIL 221 Ethics
PHIL 380  History of Ancient Philosophy

 

Winter 2024 (tentative) course offerings

Course code Title Instructor
PHIL 101 Challenging Ideas N. Ray
PHIL 121 Moral Issues B. Orend
PHIL 145 Critical Thinking TBD
PHIL 202 Gender Issues J. Saul
PHIL 215  Professional and Business Ethics G. Andres
PHIL 216 Probability and Decision Making G. Andres
PHIL 221  Ethics TBD
PHIL 226 Biomedical Ethics C. Lowry
PHIL 252 Quantum Mechanics for Everyone D. Fraser
PHIL 271 Happiness B. Orend
PHIL 283 Great Works Ancient and Medieval J. Feke
PHIL 358 Scientific Realism and Antirealism D. Fraser
PHIL 371 Racial Justice Movements L. Lindo
PHIL 402 Feminist Philosophy: Standpoint Theory A. Wylie
PHIL 403 Ancient Studies: Cosmology J. Feke
PHIL 447 Cognitive Science Seminar J. Turri
PHIL 452 Social Epistemology and Conspiracy Theory J. Saul

 

 

CLICK HERE for course descriptions

Winter 2024 (tentative) Online course offerings

Course code Title Instructor
PHIL 110B Ethics and Values TBD
PHIL 240 Intro to Formal Logic TBD
PHIL 251 Metaphysics and Epistemology TBD
PHIL 256 Intro to Cognitive Science TBD
PHIL 265 The Existential Experience TBD
PHIL 324 Social and Political Philosophy TBD

 

CLICK HERE for course descriptions