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Year
2024
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Semester
Subject
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Semester One
300-level
POLS301
Contemporary Political Theory
Description
The study of politics focuses not only on how the political world operates, but also the normative question of how it ought to operate. Is redistribution of wealth justified? Do people have a right to what they earn in the market? Is equality of opportunity possible? Is it desirable? This course examines theories of distributive justice and their implications for economics and markets. Topics covered include: Utilitarianism; Rawls’s theory of justice; Dworkin’s equality of resources; Libertarianism; Universal basic income; Market socialism; Citizenship; and culture and politics.
Occurrences
POLS301-24S1 (C)
Semester One 2024
POLS301-24S1 (D)
Semester One 2024 (Distance)
Points
30 points
Prerequisites
Any 30 points at 200 level from PHIL or POLS, or any 60 points at 200 level from the Schedule V of the BA, or LAWS, GEOG, or the Schedule V of the BCom.
Restrictions
PHIL317
, POLS351
PHIL303
Quarks, Quasars and Dinosaurs: The Philosophy of Science
Description
This course examines a number of ground breaking discoveries, breakthroughs and conceptual revolutions in the history of science, with an eye to the lessons they hold about what Science is and how it works. Fundamental questions the course considers are: How do scientists develop theories, test them, and adjudicate between rival explanations of natural phenomena? What is the scientific method? Why does this method yield such uncannily accurate predictions about future events? By what criteria can genuine sciences, like Physics, Chemistry and Biology, be distinguished from pseudosciences like Astrology and Homeopathy? Is Science progressing slowly but steadily towards a grand, unified Theory of Everything, or is the idea of scientific progress just a myth? Do the unobservable entities that scientists postulate - quarks, gluons, and their ilk - really exist, or are they merely predictively useful fictions? Should scientists try to verify their theories, or falsify them? What is scientific objectivity, and is it attainable? The course will be of interest to anyone fascinated by Science, its history, its aims, and its methods. It is intended to be especially valuable to scientists-in-training, in providing a broad perspective of the philosophical issues that hover over all scientific inquiry.
Occurrences
PHIL303-24S1 (C)
Semester One 2024
PHIL303-24S1 (D)
Semester One 2024 (Distance)
Points
15 points
Prerequisites
Any 30 points at 200 level in PHIL, or any 60 points at 200 level from the Schedule V of the BA or BSc.
Restrictions
PHIL203
PHIL305
Paradoxes
Description
This course surveys a wide range of paradoxes and bizarre brain-twisters drawn from all corners of philosophy.
Occurrences
PHIL305-24S1 (C)
Semester One 2024
PHIL305-24S1 (D)
Semester One 2024 (Distance)
Points
30 points
Prerequisites
Any 30 points at 200 level in PHIL, COSC, or MATH, or any 60 points at 200 level from the Schedule V of the BA or BSc.
Restrictions
PHIL494
, PHIL444
PHIL308
The Brain Gym: An Introduction to Logic
Description
An introduction to logical reasoning, critical analysis, and the art of proof.
Occurrences
PHIL308-24S1 (C)
Semester One 2024
PHIL308-24S1 (D)
Semester One 2024 (Distance)
Points
15 points
Prerequisites
Any 30 points at 200 level in PHIL, COSC, LING, MATH or from the BE(Hons), or any 60 points at 200 level from the Schedule V of the BA or BSc.
Restrictions
PHIL225, PHIL246, PHIL346,
PHIL208
, MATH208, MATH308
PHIL310
History of Philosophy
Description
This course introduces you to the philosophy of the early modern period. We shall pay particular attention to the epistemological and metaphysical questions addressed by Descartes in his Meditations and by Hume in Book 1 of his A Treatise of Human Nature. We also study Hume’s moral theory in Bk. III of the Treatise, Locke’s epistemology and Berkeley’s metaphysics. Topics covered include rationalism and empiricism, dreaming, scepticism, proofs of the existence of God, mind-body dualism, idealism, the nature of self, personal identity, causation, reason and the passions. Is knowledge based on reason or experience? Can I be sure that I’m not dreaming? Can I be sure of anything? What, in any case, is this ‘I’? What is the relationship between mind and body? What is it to remain the same person over time? Does the external world exist and, if so, what is its nature? Can ‘ought’ be derived from ‘is’? Is morality based on reason or the passions?
Occurrences
PHIL310-24S1 (C)
Semester One 2024
Points
30 points
Prerequisites
Any 30 points at 200 level from PHIL, or any 60 points at 200 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
PHIL318
Philosophy of Religion: Rationality, Science, and the God Hypothesis
Description
Why does the universe exist, rather than nothing at all? Does life imply a designer? Can we show by pure logic that a supreme being exists? Is a person a non-physical soul or only a neural net encased in a skull? Can I survive my death or is belief in an afterlife a trick of evolution? Isn't all the suffering in the world evidence against the hypothesis of a benevolent God? Can human beings tell what is morally right and wrong, or do we need a 'God's-eye'view'? Is science compatible with religion? Is there one and only one true religion? What is 'faith' and what is 'reason' - and who decides?
Occurrences
PHIL318-24S1 (C)
Semester One 2024
PHIL318-24S1 (D)
Semester One 2024 (Distance)
Points
30 points
Prerequisites
Any 30 points at 200 level from PHIL, or any 60 points at 200 level from the Schedule V of the BA or the BSc.
Restrictions
RELS210 and
PHIL229
Semester Two
300-level
PHIL311
Meaning, Mind, and the Nature of Philosophy
Description
Do we think in words? If I say 'I'm in pain', do you really know what I mean? How can we talk about what doesn't exist - tomorrow, Harry Potter, or the possible world where you win $1 million on Lotto? Can machines have concepts? Why does every attempt to solve a philosophical problem simply raise more problems, sometimes even worse ones? We look at central philosophical problems through the eyes of some of the greatest and most challenging philosophers of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Occurrences
PHIL311-24S2 (C)
Semester Two 2024
PHIL311-24S2 (D)
Semester Two 2024 (Distance)
Points
30 points
Prerequisites
Any 30 points at 200 level from PHIL, or any 60 points at 200 level from the Schedule V of the BA or the BSc.
Restrictions
PHIL464,
PHIL497
PHIL321
Ethics
Description
This course looks at concepts and theories in normative ethics and meta-ethics. Normative ethics deals with the foundations of moral theory. What determines whether an action is right or wrong, good or bad? What principles should we live by? Utilitarianism, deontology and virtue ethics provide three influential answers. Part I of the course studies these theories in detail, considering the ideas of Mill, Kant and Aristotle along the way. Meta-ethics deals with second-order questions about ethical thought and talk. Are there moral facts and moral truths? Could moral judgements be objectively true? What is the relation between moral facts and scientific or natural facts? How, if at all, can we acquire moral knowledge? What role do the emotions play in moral judgement? Part II of the course focuses on these and similar questions.
Occurrences
PHIL321-24S2 (C)
Semester Two 2024
Points
15 points
Prerequisites
Any 30 points at 200 level from PHIL, or any 60 points at 200 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
PHIL236
PHIL324
Bioethics: Life, Death, and Medicine
Description
Bioethics is the study of ethical problems in healthcare, research, technology and the environment. Bioethical problems arise every day, affecting societies, people and non-human animals. This course covers a wide range of issues, including: research on human and non-human animals; reproductive technologies, such as surrogacy and genetic testing; the use of data to monitor and control human actions; conflicts between privacy and autonomy and the public good, and decisions about protecting, killing and letting die, including healthcare, abortion, and euthanasia. The course includes an introduction to ethical values and principles, ways of dealing with moral disagreements, and reflection on what it means for something to be worth moral consideration.
Occurrences
PHIL324-24S2 (C)
Semester Two 2024
PHIL324-24S2 (D)
Semester Two 2024 (Distance)
Points
15 points
Prerequisites
Any 30 points at 200 level in PHIL, LAWS, HLTH, or any 60 points at 200 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
PHIL240
, POLS225