Course Catalog

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Course Catalog

ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS (PL2041)

Introduction to ethics by the example of environmental ethics, exploring the role of humans as moral agents with regard to other living beings, the whole planet or its biosphere, and future generations. Through cases studies and to understand implicit assumptions and theoretical problems of standpoints taken by stakeholders in the debate.

THE COMMONS AND THE MARKET (PL2060)

What are the justifications and implications of using markets, and what arrangements are necessary to establish and protect the commons? This course studies foundational texts of (neo-)liberal economics that aim to legitimize market mechanisms; philosophical treatments and critiques of key concepts, such as rationality and motivation, property and common goods; political analyses of how allocative institutions produce distributional outcomes.

PHILOSOPHY OF MIND (PL2070)

Systematic introduction to core questions of the philosophy of mind: What is consciousness? How does the mind relate to the body? How does the mind relate to the world through perception, thought, emotions, and actions? Case-based exploration of the consequences answers to these questions have for our conception of, e.g., reality, social relations, moral values, and a person or self.

CRITIQUE OF POLITICAL ECONOMY (PL2071)

The course focuses on the impact of the emergent discipline of political economy on modern philosophy. A brief overview of the work of Adam Smith and David Ricardo will introduce the concerns of political economy before the course focuses on Karl Marx's attempt to re-orientate philosophy through the critique of political economy.

FREUD & NIETZSCHE (PL2072)

An introduction to one of the key orientations of modern philosophy: critical genealogy and its central problematic, the identity and formation of the subject. The aim of critical genealogy is to unearth the hidden and unsuspected mechanisms, whether institutional or familial, which lie behind the formation of individual and social identities.

TOPICS IN PHILOSOPHY (PL2091)

Topics vary by semester

PHILOSOPHY & FILM (PL2095)

Uses film to examine various philosophical ideas and critical concepts. Students look at a number of key Western texts and thinkers and discuss them in the context of a broad range of films. Uses these films as illustrations to investigate questions about knowledge, the self and personal identity, moral philosophy, social and political thought, and critical theory.

TOPICS IN PHILOSOPHY (PL2910)

Topics vary by semester

CONTEMPORARY POLITICAL THOUGHT (PL3004)

The course provides a perspective on major currents of recent political thought in the context of the economy. It considers the spectrum of thinking from libertarianism through classical and progressive liberalism, focusing on distinctions between economic and political liberty, social justice, and democratic citizenship. The course considers lastly contemporary concerns with international distributive justice.

CONCEPTS IN RELATIVITY AND QUANTUM THEORIES (PL3007)

The nature of reality changed in fundamental ways in the early part of the 20th century. Concepts of duration, length, sequential order, simultaneity, weight, energy, location, mass, substance and void became a matter of perspective or ‘reference frame’. Scientists had been trying to explain apparently ‘absurd’ results, such as Maxwell’s EM wave equations or the photovoltaic effect, within the framework of classical physics. Much like what Ptolemy did with Aristotle’s model of the dynamics of the heavens before Copernicus and Kepler got it right, or, at least, not so wrong. In this course, I will present the basic principles, and derive the implications, of the theory of Special Relativity, I will describe the concepts and equivalences underlying the theory of General Relativity and show you why we know them to be correct (or at least not very wrong), I will introduce quantum theory and the quantum model of the atom and explain why it is better than plum pudding (see J. J. Thomson’s 1904 “plum pudding” model for the atom). In this course, you will learn about time travel, e=mc², black holes and wormholes. Is it true that if you run straight towards a cement wall it is just possible that you will make it through to the other side unharmed? Yes.