Major Core 

HY1001 Introduction to Philosophy 
Pre-requisite(s): Nil | 3 AUs

This course is an introduction to philosophy through the examination of fundamental philosophical issues. No prior experience with philosophy is assumed. The course is designed to provide you with a foundation for further philosophical inquiry.

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HY1002 Symbolic Logic 
Pre-requisite(s): Nil | 3 AUs

What's proper reasoning and how do you tell whether an argument is good or bad? This class introduces you to formal logic, a set of powerful tools that allow us to give precise answers to the preceding questions. Along the way we will also discuss a few paradoxes - for example, how should we understand and evaluate claims about objects that don't exist, such as the claim that Santa Clause lives on the North Pole?

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HY2002 Moral Philosophy
Pre-requisite(s): Nil | 4 AUs

This course is an introduction to philosophical ethics. No prior familiarity with the topic is assumed. You will explore major theories and concepts in ethics, and apply these theories to puzzling ethical problems. 

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HY2003 Introduction to Chinese Philosophy 
Pre-requisite(s): Nil | 3 AUs

This course aims to teach the students about the key philosophical ideas in the major Chinese philosophical traditions and the influences these thinkers have on one another. It focuses on Confucianism, Daoism, Mohism, Legalism, Buddhism, Neo-Confucianism, and Contemporary Chinese Philosophy. By the end of the course, students will have a sense of the key philosophical terms, debates and theories in Chinese history. 

 

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HY2005 Political Philosophy 
Pre-requisite(s): Nil | 3 AUs

This course is an introduction to contemporary political philosophy. States claim to have a monopoly on the justified use of coercive force. This is a stunning, and perhaps alarming, claim. It's all the more stunning once we recognize that this power is wielded, not merely over non-human animals or children, but over competent adults. Accordingly, the fundamental question of contemporary political philosophy is this: How is authority - i.e., the power to create moral obligations in others by means of commands - possible among free and equal moral persons? Anarchists think this question does not admit of a plausible answer. In this class, we'll see if they're right.  

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HY2010 Ancient Philosophy 
Pre-requisite(s): Nil | 3 AUs

This course is intended to introduce you to major ancient Greek and Roman schools of philosophical thought. In addition to being an important topic of scholarship on its own, ancient Greek and Roman philosophy provides a historical foundation for other philosophical courses/topics you will encounter as you progress in your studies, as the ancient Greeks and Romans explored issues that continue to occupy philosophers to this day.

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HY2012 Early Modern Philosophy  
Pre-requisite(s): Nil | 3 AUs

This course serves as an introduction to fundamental philosophical issues that emerge in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. You will familiarize with early modern views of the nature of cognition, the human mind, God, freedom, experience, and the origin of moral qualities, and will evaluate the merits of competing Rationalist and Empiricist approaches to these and other topics. 

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This course is an introduction to the philosophy of science, a major sub-field of philosophy. Philosophy of science is concerned with understanding the nature of science, and it intersects with other sub-fields of philosophy such as metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics. The first part of the course will focus on major theories about the nature of science, including those of the logical empiricists, Karl Popper, and Thomas Kuhn. The second half of the course will examine a variety of topics within contemporary philosophy of science, which may include: social studies of science, science and values, the ethics of science, scientific realism, as well as the application of philosophy of science to problems in the science of well-being, climate science, and other fields. By taking this course, you will gain a nuanced understanding of how science produces knowledge, as well as the ability to think critically about the status and role of science in society.

 

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HY3011  Philosophy of Mind 
Pre-requisite(s): Nil | 3 AUs

 

This course introduces you to the philosophy of mind, a core area of analytic philosophy that has connections to nearly every other area of philosophical study. You will gain an understanding of major theories and issues in philosophy of mind, as well as their connections to topics in other areas of philosophy and the sciences.

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HY3012  Philosophy of Technology 
Pre-requisite(s): Nil | 3 AUs

This course is an introduction to the philosophy of technology. Through examination of a variety of perspectives on the nature and significance of technology, you will gain a greater understanding of the place of technology in society and its effects on human individuals and societies.

 

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HY3018  Epistemology
Pre-requisite(s): Nil | 3 AUs

Epistemology is a core subdiscipline of philosophy. This is a survey class that introduces you to some of the most influential debates and approaches in epistemology in the last 100 years. Topics to be covered may include the following: analyses of knowledge, coherentist vs foundationalist theories of justification, varieties of skepticism, internalism vs externalism, formal vs traditional approaches to epistemology, legal epistemology, and more.