Graduate Courses                                     

Course Offerings for 2012-13:

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PHIL 802 Moral Philosophy I 3S

(cross-listed with 4th year course PHIL402)

R. Kumar Winter Term

The terms of contemporary debates about the nature and significance of moral responsibility have largely been set by P.F. Strawson’s classic paper, “Freedom and Resentment”. Starting with a close reading of Strawson’s original paper, this seminar will focus on recent work on moral responsibility that develops Strawsonian themes. Questions to be considered include the significance of reactive attitudes, the nature of blame, voluntarism about responsibility, the preconditions for responsible agency, and the authority of moral norms governing responsibility attributions.

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PHIL 803 Moral Philosophy II 3S

(cross-listed with 4th year course PHIL403)

K. Gordon-Solmon Fall Term

In this course, we will explore, in some depth, a range of issues in the ethics of procreation.  Topics will include abortion, assisted reproductive technologies, parental virtue, and the obligations of society toward those who bear and care for children.  This course will be organized in three parts.  In the first, introductory, part of the course, we will investigate three discrete topics in succession:  the morality of abortion, surrogacy and egg donation and its relation to issues such as organ donation and sales, and reproductive cloning.  In the second part of the course, we will focus on the duties that parents incur when they choose to have children.  Do parents have a general, pro tantoobligation to provide their children with the best available life prospects, and if so, what particular obligations does this ential?  If not, then what duties do parents have toward their children?  We will consider these questions with respect to both existing children and future children.  We will examine, in particular, the ethics of conception and embryonic selection, especially in relation to the non-identity problem, genetic enhancement, and parental virtue.  In the third and final part of the course we will turn to political philosophy.  In particular, we will consider the obligations of society to those who bear and raise children. 

Evaluation will be based on one seminar presentation (20%), a submitted final paper question and prospective bibliography (5%), and a final paper (75%).

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PHIL 805 Current Issues in Social and Political Phil I 3S

(cross-listed with 4th year course PHIL405)

C. Sypnowich Fall Term

The Egalitarian Conscience

This is a course about the concept of equality in light of the philosophical contribution of the late G.A. Cohen, who until recently was the Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory at All Souls College, Oxford.  One of the most original, incisive and influential political philosophers of our time, Cohen has left a corpus of work vital to the flourishing of the discipline.

It might be said that equality is something everyone believes in; virtually all political philosophies across the spectrum claim to be egalitarian, be it in their insistence on individuals' equal rights to liberty and property or the importance of redistributing wealth more equally.  We are all egalitarians now, we can proclaim, in the rather triumphalist mood that characterised many commentaries on the occasion of the millenium.  However, the concept of equality has also been challenged by a number of factors: the collapse of the Soviet Union and societies of 'state socialism'; the rise of right-wing critiques of the welfare state, and controversy within egalitarian debate itself.

Cohen's intellectual career, shaped by personal conviction and philosophical commitment, has confronted and illuminated many of these challenges.  This course looks at the idea of equality in light of contemporary debates , drawing on the work of Cohen, the philosophical context of his work and recent interpretations of his ideas, including the instructor's recent work, both published essays and an excerpt from her manuscript 'Equality Renewed' which is to a significant extent inspired by Cohen's contribution. 

Texts:  1.  Sypnowich, Christine (ed.) The Egalitarian Conscience: Essays in Honour of G.A. Cohen (Oxford University Press 2006) - on sale with Marilyn (general office) at cost (at $52 still pricey, but less than half of the bookshop price - no royalties to the editor!) (EC) Available electronically and on reserve at Stauffer.  2.  Articles to be distributed electronically (*).  3.  Chapters 1, 3 and 6 from G.A. Cohen, Rescuing Justice and Equality (Harvard U.P., 2008) -- on reserve at Stauffer (S).  (You may want to buy the book - it's available at Amazon.ca for $35-$40).  

Course structure:  This is a  seminar, so it is imperative that students come to class prepared to talk about the course material.  The first couple of classes will be structured around lectures given by the instructor, with discussion.  Thereafter classes will be structured around students' comment sheets to prompt discussion.  Comment sheets consist of a two-page, double-spaced short paper that sets out and analyses one or both of the readings.  Students should be prepared to discuss the comment sheet with the class.  Comment sheets will be submitted at the end of the class to be marked.

Assessment:  50% based on the best five of six comment sheets; 50% based on the final essay.   

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PHIL 806 Social and Political Philosophy II 3S

A. Macleod Fall Term

Distributive Justice. An exploration of some central questions of distributive justice. Topics (with sample questions within brackets): The Domain of Distributive Justice (How are judgments about just conduct, just institutions , and just states of affairs related?) Justice and Law (Is consistency in the application of unjust laws a form of justice?) Distributive Justice and the Market (Can meaningful judgments of justice be made about market-determined distributions of wealth, power and opportunity?) Distributive Justice and Utilitarianism (Is there a viable utilitarian perspective on issues of distributive justice?) Justice and Rights (What role do considerations of distributive justice play in the justification of rights?) Justice and Libertarianism (How far is the voluntariness of the transactions to which individuals and groups are parties the key to justice in society?) Justice and Democracy (What is the relationship between just institutional arrangements and institutional arrangements that receive democratic endorsement?) Justice and Contractarianism (What light do hypothetical contract arguments throw on the nature of justice?) Justice and Equality (Could equality of opportunity be all that justice requires?) Justice and Incentives (Is there an objection from the standpoint of justice to incentive-providing economic inequalities?) Justice and Desert (What contribution do notions of desert or merit make to our understanding of what is involved in treating people fairly?) Justice and Efficiency (Are justice and efficiency competing values, subject to trade-off? Liberty and Equality (Does justice call for the claims of liberty and equality to be balanced?).

Discussion will be based on handouts and on selections from books and articles. Members of the class will be required to submit short weekly comment sheets on assigned topics and readings. Some agreed proportion of these will be worth 50% of the final grade. The other 50% will be allocated on the basis of a term-paper.

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PHIL 807 Social and Political Philosophy III  3S

(Cross-listed with 4th year course PHIL 407)

N. Choi Winter Term

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PHIL 810 History of Philosophy 3S

(Cross-listed with 4th year course PHIL 410)

R. Murty Fall Term

Introduction to Indian Philosophy

Required text:  A Sourcebook in Indian Philosophy by S. Raddhakrishnan and C. Moore, Princeton University Press, 1957. 

After an introductory survey of the progression of Inidan philosophy, we will devote at least half f the semester to an intense study of the Upanishads and the philosophical ideas they contain.  The second half of the semester will focus on the Bhagavad Gita and the six systems of Indian philosophy of later periods.  The course will culminate in an overview of Vedanta and Neo-Vedanta philosophies.  If time permits, we will explore some contemporary thought, especially the question of how the Upanishads influenced the Gandhian approach to a political philosophy in the modern context.

The final grade for the course will be based on two essays and class participation.  

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PHIL 821 Ethical Issues II  3S

(cross-listed with 4th year course PHIL421)

C. Overall Winter Term

Topic:  Issues in Procreative Ethics

This course explores some contemporary ethical and social policy questions concerning human procreation.  Feminist and non-feminist perspectives on these issues will be discussed.  Possible topics include the following:

• What are the scope and limits of reproductive rights, for both women and men?
• What is the moral status of embryos and fetuses?
• Can there be an obligation to procreate?  Or not to procreate?
• Is David Benatar justified in his belief that it is always “better never to have been”—so that there is a prima facie reason never to procreate?
• Should prospective parents be licensed, as Hugh LaFollette argues?
• Does a moral commitment to producing good generate an obligate to procreate as many children as possible (Derek Parfit’s “repugnant conclusion”)?
• Is Julian Savulescu right in claiming that human beings have a duty of procreative beneficence?
• Is it impossible to harm a future child because without the harm, the child would be a different person (Derek Parfit’s “non-identity problem”)?
• Are future parents justified in using technology to select the characteristics (including the sex) of their future children?
• Is there a problem with permitting—and funding—post-menopausal pregnancy?
• Should contract pregnancy be banned?  What about the selling of gametes and embryos?
• Would human cloning be bad?  Would ectogenesis (gestation in an artificial uterus) be bad?
• Is it morally justifiable to have eight, fourteen, or nineteen children (like some reality show “personalities”)?
• Is planned, unattended childbirth morally wrong?

In this course there will be an emphasis on class discussion and on the development and refinement of philosophical writing skills.   Readings will be drawn from contemporary anthologies and from online philosophy journals.

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PHIL831 Ancient Philosophy I   3S

S. Leighton Winter Term

Ancient and More Current Reflections on Virtue

Plato and Aristotle’s reflections on virtue, and its ties to happiness are interesting not only in themselves, but also as a resource for more recent reflections on these matters. This course will be interested in both ancient and more recent theorizing, the influence the former has and has not had on the latter, the influence that it should and should not have. 

The first part of the course will be devoted to the efforts of Plato and Aristotle, and will include passages from works such as the Symposium, Republic, Protagoras, Gorgias, and Nicomachean Ethics.  With a reasonable apprehension of views there, we will turn to more recent reflections.  Time permitting, a number of authors will be considered, including G.E.M. Anscombe, R. Kraut, and J. Annas.  All are expert in Ancient Philosophy, and have been interested to advance its role in more contemporary thinking about virtue and happiness.  J. Annas’ efforts in her Intelligent Virtuewill take up much of the second part of the course. 

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PHIL 845 Major Figures I  3S

J. Miller Fall Term

This course offers an advanced introduction to Spinoza.  It will focus on the *Ethics*, with occasional references to his other works as well as secondary sources.  It will start with metaphysics before moving onto epistemology, the philosophy of mind and ethics.  By the end, students will have a solid understanding of Spinoza's system.

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PHIL 851 Epistemology II  3S

(cross-listed with 4th year course PHIL451)

L. Maclachlan Winter Term

THE PROBLEM OF DUALISM AND THE ENIGMA OF PERCEPTION

              The problem of dualism has its source in different conceptual schemes or discourses which are well established parts of ordinary language.  There is a discourse about physical things, which includes the language of natural science and a discourse about mental states, within which we can distinguish experiential states and intentional states, like beliefs.  The basic division among philosophers is between materialists and phenomenal realists.  There is a distinction between reductive materialism and eliminative materialism, and there is also the anomalous monism of Donald Davidson and the view of Daniel Dennett, who allows that mental discourse can be neither reduced nor eliminated, but somehow manages to downgrade it.  There are also various flavours of phenomenal realism.  There is dualism (not necessarily Cartesian dualism): there is epiphenomenalism: there is panpsychism: there is the sceptical view of Colin McGinn, who argues that mental and physical discourse must both be accepted at their face value, but we do not possess the concepts necessary to integrate them in a single system.

             The enigma of perception is connected with the problem of dualism.  The generally accepted theory of perception is that from the sensory input from an external world, we somehow or other acquire beliefs about the external world responsible.  The problem of perception is to explain in detail how we get from the antecedent physiological process, which must be described, perforce, in physical language to the set of beliefs about the world which are captured through mental discourse.  The traditional answer was that we infer from sensations produced in the mind to their external causes, but this answer presupposesour knowledge of an external world causally interacting with human beings.  The traditional answer was not as misguided as many people think today, since the assumptions on which its pattern of inference depends are generally recognized as true.  But there remains a fundamental enigma, since we have to explain how we originally acquire the knowledge of the external world as a causal system which the traditional theory assumes.

           The course will work systematically through my two recent books: Why Consciousness is Reality(Mellen Press, 2010) and The Enigma of Perception(McGill-Queen’s University Press, forthcoming).  Graduate students will be expected to lead the discussion in one or two sessions and to produce a substantial term paper at the end of the course.

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PHIL 852 Metaphysics I  3S

D. Bakhurst Winter Term

Human beings, it is often remarked, are rational animals.  The broadly Cartesian tradition in philosophy portrayed the mind as self-contained subjective world of thoughts and experiences and treated our rationality as a characteristic of minds so conceived.  As the influence of Cartesianism wanes, it is now frequently claimed that we cannot understand our status as rational animals unless we appreciate that we are social beings who are members of cultures and communities, and embodied creatures in interaction with our environment.   This course explores the arguments behind such claims, as they play out in contemporary philosophy. Specific topics discussed will include some of the following: personal identity; freedom; rationality; naturalism; objectivity and truth; thought and its objects; perception and experience; mind and its development.  The work of John McDowell will be our focus, but we shall read a number of other contemporary philosophers (e.g. Davidson, Hacking, Korsgaard, Wiggins) and their precursors (e.g. Sellars, Strawson, Wittgenstein).

Reading will include John McDowell’s, Mind and World, 2^nd ed. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996); David Bakhurst, The Formation of Reason (Wiley-Blackwell, 2011); and selected articles by other philosophers.

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PHIL853 Metaphysics II    3S

H. Laycock Winter Term

Being and becoming

Aristotle's fundamental principle is the principle of identity: to be is to be self-identical. The basic form of self-identity is that of substance, and here the hylomorphism of the Metaphysics expands and deepens the schematic account of substance in the Categories. Aristotle's outlook is continued in the analytical philosophy of the past century: Quine's slogans 'To be is to be the value of a variable' and 'No entity without identity' represent a formal generalisation of Aristotle's view; and much recent work, inspired by Quine, has introduced the principles of mereology into ontology.  PHIL853 will consist in a critical examination of these dominant tendencies in metaphysics, ending with serious consideration of a rival, process-oriented view.

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PHIL866  Philosophy of Art    3S

(cross-listed with 4th year course PHIL466)

D. Knight  Winter Term

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PHIL867  Hermeneutics

(cross-lised with 4th year course in PHIL467)

P. Fairfield  Fall Term

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PHIL870  Philosophy of Science

J. Mozersky Fall Term

Natural Structure

This course asks whether the world possesses a unique natural/inherent structure, or whether all structure is somehow mind-dependent or relative in some sense.  We shall examine various perspectives on this question through such authors such as Carnap, Quine, Goodman, Putnam, Rorty, Hacking, Ladyman, Chalmers, Hirsch, Fine and Sider.  The thesis of this course is that all attempted denials of natural structure are either self-undermining or else fall prey to a particular error of reasoning that I call the ‘epistemicfallacy’.  We shall conclude with some positive proposals for the natural structure of the world—with a particular focus on temporal structure—and how we might possibly come to know it.

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PHIL 871 Philosophy of Medicine 3S

(cross-listed with 4th year course in PHIL471)

S. Sismondo Winter Term 

Topic: Political Economies of Pharmaceutical Knowledge

In this course we examine the production, distribution, and consumption of knowledge about drugs – legal, regulated, and patented drugs. As we will learn, the case is a pathological one, because pharmaceutical companies go to great efforts to shape scientific knowledge about their products, and to transfer that knowledge to researchers, physicians, and potential consumers. But the case is one that raises many issues worth discussing. We will talk about, for example, such ontological and epistemological topics as: the natures and construction of diseases, conflicts of interest, integrity in research, and the nature of bias within science. There also will be scope to discuss more ethical topics, such as: the bounds of cosmetic pharmaceuticalization, the place of the market in health care, and the the enrolment of research subjects. This is an interdisciplinary course, and we will read a wide variety of articles, by philosophers, anthropologists, historians, journalists, and medical researchers. Evaluation will be based on short written commentaries, participation, a presentation, and a final paper.

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PHIL 873 Philosophical Logic 3S

(cross-listed with 4th year course PHIL 473)

A. Mercier Fall Term

In this course, we will do an in depth study of extentions of classical logic: second- and higher-order logics and modal logics (Leibnizian and Kripkean) in their many manifestations (alethic, deontic, temporal. epistemic), as well as survey various proposals for non-classical logics (i.e. logics which give up on the axiom of bivalence): multi-valued logics, fuzzy logics, and paraconsistent logics. 

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PHIL 897  Ethics and Animals 3S

(cross-listed with 4th year course PHIL 497)

W. Kymlicka Fall Term

This course sits at the intersection of two recent developments in political theory: the first is the demand by animal rights theorists to include animals as full members of the moral community; the second is the trend towards using "citizenship" as the central organizing concept for advancing claims of justice (reflected, for example, in the way that demands for women's rights, gay rights, disability rights, children's rights, minority rights etc have all been rearticulated as movements for new forms of citizenship).  Given these two trends, it is natural to consider whether the claims of animal rights can also be articulated in terms of citizenship.  In this course, we will examine to what extent citizenship theory can illuminate some of the central moral issues that arise in human-animal relations, and conversely, to what extent the case of animals can illuminate the strengths and limits of "citizenship" as  a concept for articulating claims of justice.  In particular, the case of animals forces us to reconsider traditional assumptions about the capacities required for citizenship (eg., capacities for deliberation or participation) and about the nature of political communities (eg., the rules of membership, territorial boundaries, etc).
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