Philosophy courses run throughout the year. To learn more, see the courses descriptions in the calendar.
Please refer to Register for Classes for published course schedules. The list below remains tentative until the official schedule is released. The course delivery mode may be subject to change.
Fall 2025
PHIL 1100 General Introduction to Philosophy
PHIL 1111 Sustainability and Ethics
PHIL 1145 Critical Thinking
PHIL 1150 Introduction to Formal Logic
PHIL 1202 Pillars of Chinese Philosophy: Zen, Theory and Practice
PHIL 2110 Moral Theory
PHIL 2210 Epistemology
PHIL 3033 Business Ethics
PHIL 4110 Special Topics
Course Title: Why Be Normal?
Course Description: Do we have a moral obligation to conform? In the words of Robert Chapman, the rise of capitalism has created an "empire of normality" that has transformed the body into a "productivity machine". This push for productivity has led to a system that punishes or excludes people who do not conform, both socially and economically. In this course we will examine the ways in which non-conforming minds and bodies are marginalized in a capitalist socio-economic system. We will examine neurodiversity and disability in the context of capitalist demands and challenge the concept of a "normal mind" and "normal body". We will address chronotype discrimination and the productivity bias that morning people are less lazy than night owls. We will explore the centering of cis-male bodies both socially and economically and the resulting marginalization of women and gender non-conforming people. This course will also examine the social mandate to share the beliefs of the majority and pursue a "normal" life path prioritizing productivity, consumption and conformity with capitalist values. Social pressures to conform are all around us. But we just might find some demands have little normative force - there might not be much to the claim that we ought to be normal after all.
PHIL 4430 Special Topics
Course Title: Consciousness, Perception, Emotion, and Embodiment
Course Description/Learning Outcomes: Upon successful completion of this course, students will understand and be able to articulate some of the nuances and questions regarding the following topics:
Different sorts of mind-body problems
Important technical terms like “qualia,” “subjectivity,” “intentionality,” “dualism,” “monism,” “emergence,” “epiphenomenalism,” “embodiment,” and more
Some historical positions on the mind-body relation: Plato versus Epicurus and the ancient materialists, René Descartes, John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, and Isaac Newton
The subjective nature of consciousness and the problems to which they give rise: the explanatory gap & the hard problem; troubles for functionalism and artificial intelligence
Reactions to the problem of subjectivity: different kinds of dualism, behaviourism, functionalism, eliminativism, mind-brain identity, panpsychism
Different modes of perception, pseudonormal vision, unique hues, colour subjectivism and their implications for behaviourism and functionalism
Levels of consciousness & animal consciousness: does consciousness come in degrees?
Emotion theory: cognition & judgement, embodiment & affect, or somewhere in between?
Spring 2026
PHIL 1100 General Introduction to Philosophy
PHIL 1110 Introduction to Moral Philosophy
PHIL 1145 Critical Thinking
PHIL 1150 Introduction to Formal Logic
PHIL 2106 Ancient Greek Philosophy
PHIL 2215 Metaphysics
PHIL 3010 Health Care Ethics
PHIL 3033 Business Ethics
PHIL 3100 Great Philosophers of the 20th Century
PHIL 4120 Topics in Philosophy of Religion