MA Research and Thesis
A research project involving the preparation and defence of a thesis which shall demonstrate capacity for independent work and original research and thought.
Note: completion of this course will replace previously assigned grade in PHIL 5F99.
Advanced Studies in Political Philosophy
A critical examination of either a particular thinker or problem in political philosophy. Political thinkers may include Plato, Aristotle, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Kant, J. S. Mill, Rawls and Nozick. Problems may include liberty and political organization, justice and equality, human nature and order, civil disobedience, participation and consent, liberalism, anarchism, socialism and conservatism.
Sartre
A study of the existentialism of Jean-Paul Sartre as discussed in his literary and philosophical works.
Merleau-Ponty
Examination of perceptual and cognitive issues in the moral, aesthetic and phenomenological philosophy of this French thinker. Critical exploration of his reception in the post-structuralist and post-analytic traditions.
Foucault
A study of the earlier and later works of Michel Foucault. Themes discussed may include archaeology, genealogy, discipline, power, knowledge, subjectivity and sexuality.
Nietzsche
A study of the philosophical ideas of Fredrich Nietzsche.
Husserl and Transcendental Phenomenology
Basic issues and methods of phenomenological philosophy will be studied and explored with reference to some of the major works of Husserl.
Simone De Beauvoir
A study of the philosophical ideas of Simone De Beauvoir.
Habermas
An examination of the philosophical ideas of Jurgen Habermas as found in Philosophical Discourse of Modernity, Truth and Justification, and Post-Metaphysical Thinking.
Heidegger
A study of Martin Heidegger's Being and Time and selected later works on themes such as fundamental ontology, analytic of Dasein, truth, language and art.
Merleau-Ponty and Nagarjuna
Critical development of comparative philosophical analysis. Examination of issues in phenomenology, existentialism and soteriology.
Kant and the 18th Century
Historical study of the thought of Immanuel Kant in the context of the 18th-century enlightenment, focusing primarily on Kant's Critique of Pure Reason.
Modern Philosophical Studies: Hegel and the 19th Century
Historical study of the thought of Georg W. F. Hegel in the context of the 19th century.
Vedanta
A study of Vedantic thought in the Non-Dualistic, Dualistic and other schools. Problems discussed include identity, difference, maya, reality, liberation and non-dualism.
Merleau-Ponty: The Art of Perception
(also offered as SCLA 5P71)
Merleau-Ponty's treatments and analyses of the visual (painting and film) and literary arts, seen as products, explorations and distortions of human perception and embodied subjectivity, which shed light on our cultural and pre-cultural experiences of the world.
Directed Reading I
Research course with directed study and regular meetings with a faculty member, covering topics not offered in a designated course.
Directed Reading II
Research course with directed study and regular meetings with a faculty member, covering topics not offered in a designated course.
Studies in Contemporary European Philosophy
A study of one or more thinkers prominent in recent continental thought.
2009-10: Deleuze
Considers the works of Deleuze (some with Guattari) examining concepts of identity and difference, monism and pluralism, multiplicities, lines of flight, body without organs and Deleuze's interpretations of Spinoza and Nietzsche in light of these concepts.
Advanced Studies in Eastern Philosophy
Concentrated critical and interpretive study of selected texts in the areas of: Advaita Vedanta, Yoga, Madhyamika and Yogacara schools of Buddhism, or Chinese Philosophy.
2009-10: Nietzsche and Buddhism
Examines Nietzsche's concepts of will to power and self-overcoming in light of early (Theravada) Buddhism.
Advanced Studies in Comparative Philosophy
2009-10: Yogacara and Phenomenology
An analysis of Sthiramati's interpretationof Vasubandhu's Trimsika-Vijnapti employing Sartre'sphenomenology of consciousness as a theoretical framework.