Fall 2022
- This course will examine the epistemological, ethical, and political philosophical issues that arise in the formation and in the implementation of public policy across a wide range of domains, including health, education, environment, and the like. Among the issues that we will be examining: what are the strengths and limits of cost-benefit analysis? Under what circumstances should it be replaced by such decision procedures as harm reduction, or of the precautionary principle? How should ethical theories be applied to complex policy processes? How should the division of labour between experts, representatives, and citizens be negotiated in public policy formulation and implementation?
syllabus_phil_481-fall_2021.pdf
Winter 2023
- How can philosophy help us to have a better life? One philosophical reply to this question is to ask: what counts as a good life, to begin with? What kind of life ought we aspire to, and based on that, how can we work to achieve it? In this course, we will consider a range of philosophical approaches to these questions, drawing on sources both old and new, namely: classical Greek and Chinese philosophies as well as a selection of current-day philosophers.
syllabus_phil_446-winter_2022.pdf
- The topic of this course in the winter term of 2023 will be the Frankfurt School, a school of social theory and critical philosophy founded in the Weimar Republic. It included such people as Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin and Jürgen Habermas. The selection of works by these people and the philosophers they engaged with has yet to be determined.