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Courses

A summary of each course to help with your selection.

Academic Year

Programs

Course ID

Course ID	Course
PHIL 210	PHIL 210 Contemporary Ethical Issues Course Credits: 3 Through readings and class-discussion, this course introduces students to the foundational moral frameworks of western civilization and requires them to bring these frameworks to bear on some of the most important ethical issues arising in contemporary society: consumerism, technoculture, environmental ethics, responsibility to distant peoples, genetic engineering and cloning, and the promise and peril of nanotechnology.
PHIL 220	PHIL 220 Philosophy of Sex & Gender Course Credits: 3 This course explores questions such as: What is feminism? What are the main schools of feminist thought? What is patriarchy? What is gender and does it differ from sex? Are there only two sexes? Are there only two genders? What is homosexuality? What are the different views on how same-sex attraction arises? Do feminism and Christianity have convergent trajectories? Is there a place in the church for those from the LGBTQ community? What are the cultural forces that format the thinking about these questions? Prerequisite(s): Second-year standing NB: Not offered every year. See department chair.
PHIL 303	PHIL 303 Medieval Philosophy Course Credits: 3 This course explores philosophical issues in the West from the second to the 14th century, in particular the impact of Greek philosophy on the development of Christian thought. There are three natural stages of this interaction: 1) Defensive philosophy (apologetics): responses to rational objections brought to bear against Christianity; 2) Methodology: reflection on the interaction between faith and reason, and, in particular, the nature of theology as a science; and 3) Constructive philosophy: struggles from within over a systematic metaphysics and ethics. A central theme of the course is the role of the doctrine of creation in the image of God. Prerequisite(s): 3 sem. hrs. of Philosophy NB: May not be offered every year. Course taught at Catholic Pacific College, an approved TWU learning centre.
PHIL 304	PHIL 304 Philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas Course Credits: 3 This course studies key texts from Thomas Aquinas. The focus is on the Summa Theologiae of Thomas Aquinas, but special attention is paid to his commentaries on Aristotle and on his Christian interpretation of ancient philosophy. The challenge that modern science and modern philosophy presents to Thomistic metaphysics is also discussed, with special attention paid to the highly influential critique made by Immanuel Kant. Prerequisite(s): 3 sem. hrs. of Philosophy NB: Course taught at Catholic Pacific College, an approved TWU learning centre.
PHIL 305	PHIL 305 Philosophy of the Human Person Course Credits: 3 This course addresses what it means to say that human beings are persons having freedom and subjectivity; examines the different powers of the human person, including the powers of understanding, willing, feeling, and loving; studies the difference between body and soul, as well as the unity of the two in humans; and explores the question of the immortality of the soul. Some classic texts from the tradition of Western philosophy are read. Prerequisite(s): 3 sem. hrs. of Philosophy NB: Course taught at Catholic Pacific College, an approved TWU learning centre.
PHIL 306	PHIL 306 Philosophy of Culture, Media & Technology Course Credits: 3 A critical investigation of the philosophical questions and assumptions that underly the relationship among culture, media, and technology. Students will investigate the philosophical underpinning and the anthropological import of various views of culture, media, and technology, asking critical moral questions about their tendencies to change and shape our human way of being. Prerequisite(s): 3 sem. hrs. of Philosophy or instructor's consent
PHIL 310	PHIL 310 Issues in Social Justice Course Credits: 3 An examination of ethical issues that pertain to social justice, addressing such topics as the distribution of wealth, the difference between equality and equity, the effects of globalization, and the morality of war. Cross-listed: POLS 310 Prerequisite(s): 3 sem. hrs. of Philosophy or Political Studies or third-year standing
PHIL 313	PHIL 313 British Empiricism Course Credits: 3 A study of empiricist philosophy in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Selected writings of Hobbes, Locke, Berkeley, and Hume are analyzed and interpreted. As we discuss each author’s ideas, we will evaluate their positions on the limits of knowledge and experience, the intelligibility of revelatory truth, the existence of God, the divisibility of reality, the role of nature, and the ethics and politics of human life. Prerequisite(s): 3 sem. hrs. of philosophy. NB: Not offered every year. See department chair.
PHIL 314	PHIL 314 Reason & the Enlightenment Course Credits: 3 A study of rationalist philosophy in the European Enlightenment period of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Selected writings of Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz are analysed and interpreted. As we discuss each author's ideas, we will evaluate their positions on: the limits of reason, the intelligibility of revelatory truth, the existence of God, the divisibility of reality, the role of nature, and the ethics and politics of human life. In the process of dialoguing about these ideas, we shall also study the historical importance of the Enlightenment in modernity as well as the original intent of the philosophers in question with attention to their historic context. We shall also assess the enduring relevance of the Enlightenment to the modern age. Prerequisite(s): 3 sem. hrs. of Philosophy NB: Not offered every year. See department chair.

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