Contract Instructor Opportunities for 2018-19
Pursuant to Article 16 of the CUPE 4600 Unit 2 Collective Agreement, applications are invited from members of the CUPE 4600-2 bargaining unit and other interested persons to teach the following Philosophy courses during the Fall 2018 and Winter 2019 terms:
FYSM 1209 [1.0 credit]: First Year Seminar: Contemporary Moral, Social, and Religious Issues
This is a full year course.
The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the nature and practice of philosophy by looking at some important ethical and social problems and issues that are prominent in the contemporary world. Typical questions might abortion, affirmative action, racism, human rights, children’s rights, world hunger, capital punishment, euthanasia, censorship, pornography, legal paternalism, animal rights and environmental protection. Students will learn some of the main positions that have been taken on these issues, along with prominent arguments that have been offered for and against these different positions. The goal of the course is to stimulate students’ thinking about the chosen questions and provoke them to form views about them. The objective is not merely for them to understand how philosophers and others have answered these questions, but to understand and evaluate their arguments, recognizing their strengths and weaknesses, possibly trying to improve upon them. Students should be encouraged to formulate their own arguments and defend them, as far as they are able. Students will also learn prominent moral theories that are relevant to those arguments and issues.
PHIL 1000 [0.5 credit]: Introductory Philosophy: Fields, Figures and Problems
Scheduled in Fall semester.
This course will introduce students to some of the main branches of philosophy, such as epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, social philosophy, and aesthetics. In each of the branches that are covered, students will learn one or more of the perennial philosophical problems in that branch (e.g. knowledge of external world, free will and determinism, the possibility of objective morality possible, the nature of social justice), and in addition, the answers and arguments given on these questions by eminent historical and/or contemporary philosophers. The goal of the course is to stimulate students’ thinking about the chosen questions and provoke them to form views about them. The objective is not merely for them to understand how philosophers and others have answered these questions, but to understand and evaluate their arguments, recognizing their strengths and weaknesses, possibly trying to improve upon them. Students should be encouraged to formulate their own arguments and defend them, as far as they are able.
PHIL 1200 [0.5 credit]: The Meaning of Life
Scheduled in Winter semester.
This course is intended as an introduction to philosophical issues surrounding the enduring question of life’s meaning. Through a consideration of a number of philosophical writings on the topic (particularly from 19th century, 20th century, and contemporary authors in the Western philosophical tradition), students will be familiarized with various examples of all three major approaches to life’s meaning, viz. supernaturalist (including religious) approaches, naturalist approaches, and nihilist (or pessimistic) approaches.
PHIL 1550 [0.5 credit]: Introduction to Ethics and Social Issues
Scheduled in both Fall and Winter semesters.
The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the nature and practice of ethics and social philosophy by looking at some important ethical and social problems and issues that are prominent in the contemporary world. Typical questions might abortion, affirmative action, racism, human rights, children’s rights, world hunger, capital punishment, euthanasia, censorship, pornography, legal paternalism, animal rights and environmental protection. Students will learn some of the main positions that have been taken on these issues, along with prominent arguments that have been offered for and against these different positions. The goal of the course is to stimulate students’ thinking about the chosen questions and provoke them to form views about them. The objective is not merely for them to understand how philosophers and others have answered these questions, but to understand and evaluate their arguments, recognizing their strengths and weaknesses, possibly trying to improve upon them. Students should be encouraged to formulate their own arguments and defend them, as far as they are able. Students will also learn prominent moral theories that are relevant to those arguments and issues.
PHIL 1610 [0.5 credit]: Great Philosophical Ideas, Part 1
Scheduled in Fall semester.
Major figures and developments in philosophy from the early Greeks to the year 1400. Descriptive and comparative approach, providing an understanding of the place of philosophers in the history of thought. Appreciation of critical reasoning is included for comprehending philosophical developments.
PHIL 2001 [0.5 credit]: Introduction to Logic
Scheduled in Fall semester.
An introduction to the techniques and philosophical implications of propositional and predicate logic with emphasis on translation of expressions into symbolic form, testing for logical correctness, the formulation and application of rules of inference, and the relation between logic and language. While the course will be accessible to students with non-philosophical backgrounds, the textbook and assignments will provide students with basic knowledge of propositional and predicate logic that are assumed by higher-level courses in philosophy.
PHIL 2103 [0.5 credit]: Philosophy of Human Rights
Scheduled in Winter semester.
The content and teaching of this course will focus on the justifiability of human rights. Thus the distinction between having a human right, as a moral guarantee, and enjoying a human right (insofar as it is respected, protected and fulfilled) will be drawn, and prominent lines of argument (both historical and contemporary) for and against particular human rights or classes of human rights will be presented. These will include prominent philosophical approaches, e.g., utilitarian, Kantian, contractarian, libertarian, and basic rights approaches. Students will engage critically with these debates, considering objections to the arguments, and drawing their own conclusions as to which of the arguments stand up best to the objections, and thus which views on the contested human rights are supported by the strongest arguments. Relativism will be covered as well as pluralism, i.e. the prospect that human rights may be justifiable from within many different cultural traditions and moral perspectives. Historical and contemporary readings may be combined, but this course should prepare students to succeed in upper-level courses in contemporary social and political philosophy, while remaining interesting and accessible to students who will not take more philosophy.
PHIL 2380 [0.5 credit]: Introduction to Environmental Ethics
Scheduled in Fall semester.
This course addresses a series of questions relevant to the evaluation of environmental issues from a philosophical perspective. Why is the natural environment valuable? Does it possess value only insofar as it provides us with some instrumental good or does it have inherent worth independent of that which human beings derive from it? Should we preserve and protect the natural world for its own sake or simply for our own? How might the answers we give to these questions inform our environmental activism and our public policies? In an attempt to address these questions, the course will look at various arguments philosophers have offered regarding the natural world’s value, and assess various strategies that have been proposed and pursued in the name of respecting and/or preserving our natural environment. Material for this course may be drawn from both historical and contemporary philosophy, and from both the analytic and the continental tradition. While the course will be accessible to students with non-philosophical backgrounds, its methods of evaluation will prepare students to succeed in upper level courses in ethics and social and political philosophy.
PHIL 2408 [0.5 credit]: Bioethics
Scheduled in Winter semester.
Ethical and political issues in medicine, public health, biotechnology, and the life sciences. Topics will include some or all of the following: reproductive ethics, research on human subjects, animal research and treatment, justice and health care, physician-patient relationships, death and the end of life, and genetic engineering.
PHIL 2501 [0.5 credit]: Introduction to Philosophy of Mind
Scheduled in Fall semester.
An introduction to major philosophical issues in the philosophy of mind. Among other topics, this course will cover the main approaches to the mind-body problem (including, dualism, physicalism, and functionalism) as well as views about the nature of consciousness, personhood, and non-human intelligence. While the course will be accessible to students with non-philosophical backgrounds, its selection of assigned readings and methods of evaluation will prepare students to succeed in upper level courses in philosophy of mind.
PHIL 2601: Philosophy of Religion
Scheduled in Fall semester.
A study of philosophical issues arising from religion. Topics may include: reconstructions of historical and contemporary arguments for and against the existence of God, the nature of religious experience, the status of miracles, how to reconcile God and evil, and how to understand the relationship between religion and science.
PHIL 3002: 17th Century Philosophy
Scheduled in Fall semester.
European philosophy of the 17th century. Representative works of writers such as Francis Bacon, Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, and Locke.
PHIL 3009: Topics in European Philosophy
Scheduled in Winter semester.
A study of philosophers, texts, problems and issues in any period of European philosophy.
PHIL 3104: The Roots of Analytic Philosophy
Scheduled in Fall semester.
In the context of the work of such writers as Frege and Bradley, a discussion of early philosophical works of Russell, Moore and Wittgenstein. In addition some early representatives of positivism and pragmatism will be examined.
PHIL 3320 [0.5 credit]: Contemporary Ethical Theory
Scheduled in Fall semester.
Topics will include utilitarianism, consequentialism, virtue and deontology, and may also include libertarianism, communitarianism, egoism, neo-Kantianism, social contract ethics, feminist ethics, and moral rights, as well as various meta-ethical perspectives such as realism, relativism, expressivism and nihilism.
PHIL 3330 Topics in the History of Social and Political Philosophy
Scheduled in Winter semester.
This course follows themes or problems through the history of philosophy, with a view to critically examine the strengths and weaknesses of different philosophers’ answers to them. Instructors should design the course to ensure that a sufficient number of major philosophers are covered, and that the themes and problems are highly salient in the history of social and political philosophy. Contract instructors are invited to discuss their designs with permanent Philosophy faculty or the Chair. The goal of the course is to stimulate students’ thinking about the chosen questions and provoke them to form views about them. The objective is not merely for them to understand how philosophers and others have answered these questions, but to understand and evaluate their arguments, recognizing their strengths and weaknesses, possibly trying to improve upon them. Students should be encouraged to formulate their own arguments and defend them, as far as they are able.
Application Procedures and Deadlines:
Required Professional Qualifications: MA Degree in the appropriate field.
Closing Date: Tuesday, May 22, 1:00 pm.
All applicants must apply to the Department Head in writing and in relation to each course for which they wish to be considered:
Professor David Matheson
Chair, Department of Philosophy
Carleton University
1125 Colonel by Drive, 3A48 Paterson Hall
Ottawa, ON. K1S 5B6
Email: philosophy@carleton.ca
As per Article 15.3 of the current CUPE 4600 Unit 2 Collective Agreement, applicants are required to submit an up to date CV, including a complete listing of all courses taught within the CUPE 4600 Unit 2 bargaining unit at Carleton University. Candidates who have already contacted the department and submitted a CV recently need only indicate their interest in particular courses. NOTE that when applying to classes for which they have incumbency, applicants shall not be required to (re)submit documentation beyond their updated CV.
Pre-Posting Hiring Decisions:
The following courses have been assigned to graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, or visiting scholars. These courses are not open for applications but the department will contact the most senior incumbent to review their rights under Article 17.6 of the CUPE 4600-2 Collective Agreement:
- N/A for the 2018/19 academic year