Major Prescribed Electives (MPE)

HY0101 The Philosophy & Ethics of Artificial Intelligence
Pre-requisite(s): Nil | 3 AUs

Note: Students who matriculated prior to AY2021-22 can take HY0101 to fulfil the MPE requirement. Students who matriculated from AY2021-22 onwards will take HY0101 as ICC Core (Digital Literacy 2). 

This course will provide an overview of the main approaches to AI research: the laws of thought approach (GOFAI or logic-based AI), the thinking humanly or cognitive modelling approach (neural networks or connectionism), the acting humanly or Turing test approach, and the acting rationally approach (reinforcement learning). You will learn about the key concepts, theoretical underpinnings, and philosophical issues pertaining to each of these distinct approaches to AI research. In addition, you will be invited to explore the key normative issues surrounding the design and implementation of AI systems, including the value alignment problem and the ethical implications and existential risks associated with AI systems. How is Logic Theorist able to generate proofs of theorems in propositional logic? If it can generate novel and more elegant proofs, does that count as a form of creativity? How might a chatbot like ELIZA be able to pass certain conversational tests for intelligence? What distinguishes reinforcement learning from other approaches to AI research? If our aim is to chart the progress of AI, why might the exploits of AlphaZero be significant? What are some existential risks associated with the emergence of superintelligent AI? These are some of the questions that we shall be exploring. No prior philosophical or technical background is assumed.

HY2008 Environmental Ethics 
Pre-requisite(s): Nil | 3 AUs

This course aims to introduce you to ethical issues raised by ecological problems and environmental-related concerns in today's world, with a focus on rethinking the relationship between human beings and nature. You will learn various concepts and theories on the subject and develop an ability to carry out philosophical inquiry and to independently think through a variety of ethical issues related to the environment.

HY2015 Philosophy of Well-Being
Pre-requisite(s): Nil | 3 AUs

What makes a life go well for the person living it? Theories of well-being attempt to answer this question. In this course, we will examine the most promising of such theories, evaluating each for their strengths and weaknesses. This course is suitable for those who want to investigate the nature of welfare in a philosophically rigorous manner. It is not suitable for people who just want to share their feelings about happiness.

HY2016 Friendship 
Pre-requisite(s): Nil | 3 AUs

This course introduces the nature of friendship through the writings of different historical and contemporary thinkers. It aims to motivate students to think about the components of friendship and improves students' skills in reasoning about friendship as a philosophical issue and drawing practical insights from it. By the end of the course, students will have a sense of the complexities involved in working out a definition of friendship and answering the question why friendship is valuable.

HY2025 Medical Ethics 
Pre-requisite(s): Nil | 3 AUs

This course provides an introductory treatment of biomedical ethics - one of the most practically relevant areas of applied ethics. It is suitable for any interested undergraduate; it will not be assumed that you have previously taken a course in ethics or philosophy. The course will be of use to anyone considering a career as a medical clinician or researcher, and to anyone who wishes to learn about the role of ethics in biomedical practice.

Attention will be paid to a range of topics in biomedical ethics. Each of these topics highlights the morally relevant features of biomedical policy and practice. We will examine the moral rights of patients and other stakeholders vis a vis physicians and medical care institutions at large. We will also cover moral questions raised by genetic and reproductive control: for instance, the genetic screening of human embyros and surrogate pregnancies. Termination of life issues will also discussed - e.g., abortion, euthanasia, and assisted suicide - as will ethical dilemmas raised by the distribution of medical resources like organs and health care. 

HY2026 Business Ethics 
Pre-requisite(s): Nil | 3 AUs

This course is designed to introduce students in philosophy, business, and other majors to a range of issues at the intersection of business and ethics. We will cover a variety of "traditional" business ethics topics, such as standards for employee / product safety, hiring and promotion, and wages. Additionally, we will examine broader questions about the place and influence of business in society, many of which come down to the debate over the extent to which societal goods and their distribution should be determined by market forces. Through study of both general philosophical theories and specific cases, this course will prepare students to deal with ethical decisions they will face in their careers and as members of society.

HY2027 Popular Culture and Philosophy 
Pre-requisite(s): Nil | 3 AUs

The course explores the various philosophical assumptions and issues that are latent in much of popular culture. Through examining various works of popular culture - including popular films, television shows, novels, and popular music - the course exposes students to central topics in philosophy, especially in ethics, and social and political philosophy. Topics include (but are not limited to): epistemology, ethics, disability, metaphysics, philosophy of language, political philosophy, and so on. It is expected that students who complete this course will be able to (i) engage with, and (ii) critically discuss, popular culture philosophically. This will enable students to be critical, rather than passive, consumers (or even producers) of popular culture.

HY2028 Food Ethics
Pre-requisite(s): Nil | 3 AUs

We face decisions about what to eat several times a day. In this class, we will cover the following questions. How should facts about animal life and death inform our food decisions? Does the suffering involved in meat, egg, and dairy production make the practices immoral? How do our choices affect local and non-local economies, the environment, and other people? Is government intervention in the form of food policies justifiable? Given the connections between eating practices and various ethnic, religious, and class identities, how can we formulate reasonable food policies and practices? What are the ethical dimensions of obesity, body positivity, and eating disorders? While prior experience with philosophy or ethics is helpful, it is not a pre-requisite for this class. This course is suitable for those who want to expose themselves to the topics above, and investigate them in a philosophically rigorous manner.

HY2905 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.

HY2910 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.

HY3001 Existentialism 
Pre-requisite(s): Nil | 3 AUs

This course charts the genesis and evolution of key concepts, claims, and arguments in the existentialist tradition. After taking this course, you will be able to critically engage existentialist interpretations human experience, meaning, faith, value, responsibility, freedom, finitude, etc., and evaluate their relevance for our lives. 

HY3002 Philosophy of Medicine 
Pre-requisite(s): Nil | 3 AUs

This course aims to introduce philosophical discussions about medicine to students. In addition, it encourages students to respond critically to articles and other media that make use of the method and concepts of philosophy in healthcare and to become ethically reflective and responsible global citizens. This course will also encourage students to think critically about the scientific and humanistic aspects of medical practice, the conceptual analysis of health, disease, and death, the nature of causality in medicine, the implementation of AI systems in healthcare, the patient-physician relationship, bioethics, and the role of narrative ethics.

HY3003 World Religions 
Pre-requisite(s): Nil | 3 AUs

This course aims towards philosophical reflection on various religious traditions in the world. This includes religious employments of philosophical ideas, philosophical criticisms of religious tenets, and philosophical questions based on religious inquiries. The development of world religions such as Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, has been intertwined with philosophical explorations across different geographical and cultural environments. This course covers the basics of theses traditions from ancient times up to the present day and explores cross-cultural dialogues between them in depth.

HY3004 Reason and Faith 
Pre-requisite(s): Nil | 3 AUs

This course gives students a unique opportunity to explore profound questions of religion and faith in a philosophical framework. Students will be asked to take a reasoned stance on whether religious faith can be, or even should be, rationally justified by evidence. They will be challenged to assess arguments in favor of theism and atheism. They will consider whether science and religion are compatible, or whether one discredits the other. And they will contemplate whether religious assertions about the occurrence of miracles and the existence of an afterlife survive critical scrutiny. Finally, we examine whether religions can be worthy of our adherence, even if some of their fundamental tenets are false. The course will conclude with some reflection on the important roles that religion can play in people’s lives, apart from being a source of truth-claims. These issues are among the great questions that have roiled the human mind. In Faith and Reason, students will confront them head-on in an intellectual environment that will demand both analytical rigor and mutual respect.

HY3014 19th Century Continental Philosophy 
Pre-requisite(s): Nil | 3 AUs

This course introduces you to fundamental themes and figures of 19th century European philosophy. You will grasp the genesis, arguments, and motivations for a range of new movements that emerge in this period, including, e.g. idealism, romanticism, historicism, hermeneutics, historical materialism and philosophy of history, and will evaluate their respective interpretations of human reason, nature, freedom, experience, history, and social life. 

HY3015 20th Century Continental Philosophy
Pre-requisite(s): Nil | 3 AUs

This course introduces you to the central thinkers, philosophical movements, and fundamental themes in 20th century European philosophy. You will learn the fundamentals of structuralism, hermeneutics, critical theory, deconstruction, feminism, and psychoanalysis, among other movements, and will explore how thinkers from each movement respond to the problems they think plague their philosophical rivals.

HY3019 Consequentialism 
Pre-requisite(s): HY2002 | 3 AUs

Consequentialism holds, roughly, that acts are permissible if and only if they bring about the best outcome. The right-to-left reading of this biconditional is a particularly compelling idea. Since by our acts we influence how things turn out, it's hard to deny that it is always permissible to actualize the outcome that's best. And yet critics have leveled a number of powerful objections. It is argued that the theory's commitment to aggregation is objectionable, that it fails to recognize the separateness of persons, that it disregards the moral importance of intergrity, that it's overly stringent (or excessively permissive). and that it falters in the face of collective action problems. Beyond these external criticisms, the precise formulation of the theory presents a number of technical obstacles. This has given rise to major internal disputes among its advocates. Should we, for example, bring about the most actual good or aim for the most expected good? Are our obligations determined by the possible consequences of our acts or their actual consequences? This course will address the three issues just mention: Consequentialism's compellingness, and its purported internal and external problems. This course is suitable for those who want to investigate the nature of consequentialism in a philosophically rigorous manner.

HY3020 Deontology 
Pre-requisite(s): HY2002 | 3 AUs

Deontological theories hold, roughly, that there are certain features that our actions themselves that are relevant to the deontic properties they possess - that do not reduce to the consequences. Accordingly, allows for the possibility that some actions are impermissible, even though the results of so acting would be best. In this course, how this position might be maintained and explained, as well as the most pressing objections it faces. This course is suitable for those who want to investigate the nature of deontology in a philosophically rigorous manner.

HY3021 Philosophy of Race and Gender
Pre-requisite(s): HY2002 | 3 AUs

This course is designed to introduce students to a range of philosophical issues surrounding race and gender. There are two main topics that we'll be exploring in the course, each of which will occupy about half of the term. The first topic is the multidisciplinary debate about what race and gender actually are, which we will engage with through critical examination of a range of proposed definitions of race and gender. The second topic is the social, ethical, and political significance that race and gender, with particular attention to the ways that race and gender shape the opportunities and obstacles faced by individuals/groups in society. By examining these issues, students will gain a better understanding of the role of race and gender in their own individual identity as well as the ability to think critically about societal policies and ideologies related to race and gender.

HY3022 Comparative Philosophy: East and West 
Pre-requisite(s): HY2003/HY2903 | 3 AUs

This course aims to introduce students to a range of theoretical and practical philosophical issues from the perspectives of Chinese Philosophies and Anglo-American philosophies. This course is suitable for students who want to learn how to approach philosophical topics from different cultural perspectives in a philosophically rigorous manner. By the end of the course, students will have a sense of the complexities involved in working out a philosophical theory because of many different implicit philosophical assumptions different philosophical traditions adopt. 

HY3024 Virtue Ethics 
Pre-requisite(s): HY2002 | 3 AUs

Virtue ethics is, along with deontology and consequentialism, one of the "big three" theories in normative ethics. This course aims to give you an in-depth understanding of the virtue ethical tradition, including close reading of major book-length works by both ancient and contemporary virtue ethicists.

HY3025 Philosophy and Literature 
Pre-requisite(s): Nil | 3 AUs

This course aims to introduce philosophical discussions about literature to students. In addition, it encourages students to respond critically to articles and other media that make use of the concepts of aesthetics and the philosophy of literature and to become ethically reflective and responsible global citizens. This course will also encourage students to think critically about the nature of truth, knowledge, interpretation, understanding, taste, criticism, evaluation, and morality in the literary domain.

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.

HY3911 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.

HY3912 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.

HY3918 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.

HY4002 Knowledge and Reality 
Pre-requisite(s): HY1001 | 4 AUs

This is a class on metaphysics, epistemology, and the intersection between these two fields. Our main focus will be on us and our status in the world (both epistemologically and metaphysically), and we will be interested in questions such as the following ones: What is knowledge and how can we know anything about the external world? How should we respond when we find that our peers disagree with us? Is our knowledge of ourselves qualitatively different from our knowledge of others? What are we anyway?

HY4003 Advanced Epistemology 
Pre-requisite(s): HY1002 | 4 AUs

The aim of this class is to introduce you to some of the major recent developments in contemporary epistemology, including various ways in which formal methods have been used to study philosophical problems. We will discuss both debates that are internal to contemporary approaches in epistemology as well as contrasts between modern and traditional approached to epistemology. We will also discuss applications of modern epistemology in, for example, a legal context.

HY4005 History of Analytic Philosophy 
Pre-requisite(s): Nil | 4 AUs

This course is designed to introduce advanced undergraduates to the history of analytic philosophy through the reading of primary sources. Analytic philosophy is a major tradition of contemporary philosophy, and it has produced numerous landmark works. In this course, we will read and analyze several of these landmark works, which may include books and articles by Gottlob Frege, Bertrand Russell, Rudolf Carnap, W. V. O. Quine, Saul Kripke, and others. By reading these works together, you will gain a better perspective on how many of the central ideas in contemporary philosophy emerged, and how they are related to each other. You will also gain experience in analyzing and critiquing primary sources at an advanced level.

This course is designed to introduce advanced undergraduates to the philosophy of physics, a core branch of philosophy of science. Physics is widely believed to be the most fundamental of the sciences, and many conceptual issues in physics intersect with philosophy. We will examine these conceptual issues from a philosophical perspective. In the first half of this course, we will explore the conceptual development of theories about space and time. We will take a historical approach, examining in turn the ideas of Newton, Leibniz, Mach, the logical positivsts, and Einstein. In the second half of the course, we will explore conceptual issues in quantum mechanics, a theory developed in the twentieth century about what the world is like at the scale of atoms. We will focus on puzzling conceptual problems of quantum mechanics such as the measurement problem and non-locality, as well as various interpretations of quantum mechanics. By examining the philosophy of physics, students will gain an understanding of the kinds of issues that might arise at the intersection of science and philosophy.

This course aims to develop your ability to engage in academic research in Confucian Philosophy. After the course, you will have a good understanding of some important concepts and issues in Confucian and comparative philosophy and be able to design an innovative and independent research proposal in related subjects.