Summer 2022 Course Offerings

Summer Courses

PHLB04H3Y: Philosophy and Literature

Instructor: Andriy Bilenkyy

Lecture Mode: In person

Course Desciption: This course examines some of the classic problems concerning literary texts, such as the nature of interpretation, questions about the power of literary works and their relationship to ethical thought, and problems posed by fictional works - how can we learn from works that are fictional and how can we experience genuine emotions from works that we know are fictional?

 

PHLB07H3Y: Ethics

Instructor: Doug Campbell

Lecture Mode: Online, synchronous
Tutorial Mode: In person

Course Description: What is the difference between right and wrong? What is 'the good life'? What is well-being? What is autonomy? These notions are central in ethical theory, law, bioethics, and in the popular imagination. In this course we will explore these concepts in greater depth, and then consider how our views about them shape our views about ethics.

 

PHLB12H3S: Philosophy of Sexuality

Instructor: Hamish Russell

Lecture Mode: In person

Course Description: 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; perverse sex; sexual liberation; love and sexuality.

 

PHLC07H3F: Death and Dying

Instructor: Melissa Rees

Lecture Mode: In person

Course Description: An intermediate-level study of the ethical and legal issues raised by death and dying. Topics may vary each year, but could include the definition of death and the legal criteria for determining death, the puzzle of how death can be harmful, the ethics of euthanasia and assisted suicide, the relationship between death and having a meaningful life, and the possibility of surviving death.

 

PHLC22H3Y: Topics in Theory of Knowledge

Instructor: Elliot Carter

Lecture Mode: Online, asynchronous

Course Description: This course addresses particular issues in the theory of knowledge in detail. Topics will vary from year to year but may typically include such topics as The Nature of Knowledge, Scepticism, Epistemic Justification, Rationality and Rational Belief Formation.

 

PHLC86H3Y: Issues in the Philosophy of Mind

Instructor: Zain Raza

Lecture Mode: Online, synchronous

Course Description: Advance Issues in the Philosophy of Mind. For example, an examination of arguments for and against the idea that machines can be conscious, can think, or can feel. Topics may include: Turing's test of machine intelligence, the argument based on Gödel's theorem that there is an unbridgeable gulf between human minds and machine capabilities, Searle's Chinese Room thought experiment.