Course description
To complete the degree requirements for the Master of Arts in Philosophy, there are two paths from which to choose:
1) four half-courses plus a thesis.
2) eight half-courses plus a major paper.
Graduate half-courses are thirteen weeks in duration and generally meet three hours per week. Normally, nine or ten graduate courses are offered fall/winter. Individualized courses on a selected topic can also be arranged on a tutorial basis. Students doing the thesis route are permitted only one tutorial half-course for credit; major essay students are allowed two. While the Master's Program is designed to be completed in one year, not all students achieve full completion in this span of time.
I. Contemporary Studies: Nietzsche, Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre, Marcel, Buber, Scheler, Merleau-Ponty, Gadamer, Foucault, Luhmann or some contemporary European movement such as Structuralism, the Frankfurt School, Post-structuralism: Deleuze, Derrida, Irigiray, Kristeva.
II. Eastern Studies: Indian Philosophy: Upanishadic thought: texts from the six orthodox schools of Indian philosophy, especially Advaita Vedanta, Early Indian Buddhist traditions, especially Madhyamika schools and Yogacara; Bhakti traditions, Gandhi; Chinese Philosophy, especially Confucianism, Taoism, and Chinese Buddhism.
III. Comparative Studies: comparison of Eastern and Western traditions with respect to problems of being, knowledge, person, values and philosophical method.
Fall term (D2)
5V03 De Beauvoir Prof. Christine Daigle
5P21 Hegel Prof. Athena Colman
5V32 Vedanta Prof. Rohit Dalvi
5V34 Yogacara and Sartre Prof. Wink-Cheuk Chan
Winter term (D3)
5V46 Nietzsche and Buddhism Prof. Ric Brown
5P20 Kant Prof. Murray Miles
5V15 Heidegger Prof. Raj Singh
5V07 Foucault Prof. Annie Larivée
5P07 Husserl Prof. Rajiv Kaushik
Students can take up to two graduate tutorials for independent studies on topics of their choice that match the areas of expertise of the faculty members
5P91
Tutorial
5P92
Tutorial
5F98
Major essay
5F99
Thesis
PHIL5V03: The Philosophy of Simone de Beauvoir (Fall 2007)
Instructor: Prof. Christine Daigle
We will examine the early essays written by Beauvoir in the forties, among which Pyrrhus et Cinéas and The Ethics of Ambiguity, as well as the key work The Second Sex. This examination will unveil the originality of Beauvoir's existential phenomenology as well as her underlying concern with ethics and liberation for all individuals, a liberation that requires political engagement. While it can be argued that Beauvoir is influenced by Heidegger, Hegel and Husserl in devising her own phenomenological thought, something she shares with Sartre and Merleau-Ponty, it will be shown that her gendered phenomenology solves many of the problems that arise from their philosophies.
Two books will be required for the course:
1- Simone de Beauvoir. Philosophical Writings. Edited by Margaret A. Simons, Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2004.
2- Simone de Beauvoir. The Second Sex. New York: Vintage, 1989.
PHIL 5V08: Nietzsche and Buddhism (Winter 2008)
Instructor: Prof. Ric Brown
Books required:
Robert G. Morrison, Nietzsche and Buddhism : A Study in Nihilism and Ironic Affinities. Oxford University Press, 1999. Paperback
Nietzsche: Writings from the Late Notebooks. Cambridge University Press, 2003. Paperback.
Walpola Rahula, What the Buddha Taught. Grove/Atlantic Press, 1994. Paperback. Recommended reading only.
Please note. What the Budhha Taught is a text for PHIL 1F90. Most incoming graduate students are TAs for this introductory course and will be given this text, along with the others being used, gratis.
For more information on other courses, please contact faculty members
