Contract Instructor Opportunities
Fall 2023 / Winter 2024
Department of Philosophy, Carleton University
Note: The modality of these courses is determined by the University (in-person, online, or hybrid).
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 2023 and Winter 2024 terms:
FYSM 1210 [0.5 credit]: First Year Seminar: Special Topics
Term Offered: Winter
Designated Modality: In-person
Anticipated Enrollment: 30
Anticipated TA Support: No
*Please note that anticipated TA support is based on anticipated enrollment and may change based on actual enrollment in a course
Selected topics in the study of philosophy. Topics offered may vary from year to year and will be announced in advance of the registration period by the Department of Philosophy.
Note: If you are applying to this course, please propose a topic in your application.
The University may require that all or part of this course be delivered remotely, including online.
PHIL 1000 [0.5 credit]: Introductory Philosophy: Fields, Figures and Problems
Term Offered: Fall and Winter
Designated Modality: In-person for Fall; Online for Winter
Anticipated Enrollment: 250 for both sections
Anticipated TA Support: Yes
*Please note that anticipated TA support is based on anticipated enrollment and may change based on actual enrollment in a course
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
PHIL 1200 [0.5 credit]: The Meaning of Life
Term Offered: Winter
Designated Modality: Online
Anticipated Enrollment: 250
Anticipated TA Support: Yes
*Please note that anticipated TA support is based on anticipated enrollment and may change based on actual enrollment in a course
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 1700 [0.5 credit]: Philosophy of Love and Sex
Term Offered: Winter
Designated Modality: Online
Anticipated Enrollment: 250
Anticipated TA Support: Yes
*Please note that anticipated TA support is based on anticipated enrollment and may change based on actual enrollment in a course
A survey of philosophical classics, on themes of romantic love, friendship, self-love, altruistic love, sexuality, eroticism and the passion/reason dichotomy, from Plato’s Symposium to Foucault’s History of Sexuality; and an examination of related contemporary issues (such as pornography, sex work, polyamory, sexual ‘perversions’, S/M) in light of these perspectives.
PHIL 2001 [0.5 credit]: Introduction to Logic
Term Offered: Two sections in the Fall, and one section in the Winter
Designated Modality: Online for all sections
Anticipated Enrollment: 320 for all sections
Anticipated TA Support: Yes
*Please note that anticipated TA support is based on anticipated enrollment and may change based on actual enrollment in a course
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 2003 [0.5 credit]: Critical Thinking
Term Offered: Fall
Designated Modality: Online
Anticipated Enrollment: 250
Anticipated TA Support: Yes
*Please note that anticipated TA support is based on anticipated enrollment and may change based on actual enrollment in a course
This course introduces students to basic principles of informal and formal reasoning. The main objective of the course is to enhance students’ capacity for critical thought in everyday life as well as in more specialized contexts. Topics explored in the course typically include: the nature and identification of arguments as reasons for belief; logical strength in deductive, inductive, and abductive arguments; common informal and formal argumentative fallacies; the method of counterexamples and other strategies for assessing the truth of argument premises; core insights from the probability calculus for estimating likelihoods; dealing with expert disagreement; and the special concerns of thinking critically about moral matters.
PHIL 2340 [0.5 credit]: Philosophy and Pop Culture
Term Offered: Fall
Designated Modality: OnlineAnticipated Enrollment: 250
Anticipated TA Support: Yes
*Please note that anticipated TA support is based on anticipated enrollment and may change based on actual enrollment in a course
Philosophy is all around us, it permeates culture. This course explores philosophical questions through the lens of popular culture. The material used may include films, shows, music, novels, video games, advertising, comic books, and so on.
PHIL 2380 [0.5 credit]: Introduction to Environmental Ethics
Term Offered: Winter
Designated Modality: In-person
Anticipated Enrollment: 250
Anticipated TA Support: Yes
*Please note that anticipated TA support is based on anticipated enrollment and may change based on actual enrollment in a course
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.
The University may require that all or part of this course be delivered remotely, including online.
PHIL 2601 [0.5 credit]: Philosophy of Religion
Term Offered: Fall
Designated Modality: In-person
Anticipated Enrollment: 150
Anticipated TA Support: Yes
*Please note that anticipated TA support is based on anticipated enrollment and may change based on actual enrollment in a course
A study of philosophical issues arising from religion. Topics may include: arguments for and against the existence of God, religious experience, death and the afterlife, miracles, God and evil, the relationship between religion and science, and the relationship between religion and ethics.
The University may require that all or part of this course be delivered remotely, including online.
PHIL 2700 [0.5 credit]: Asian Philosophy
Term Offered: Winter
Designated Modality: Online
Anticipated Enrollment: 125
Anticipated TA Support: Yes
*Please note that anticipated TA support is based on anticipated enrollment and may change based on actual enrollment in a course
An examination of South Asian and East Asian philosophical texts, from the period of the Upanishads and early Buddhism in India to modern philosophical movements. Historical sources may include Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Confucian or Taoist texts, with a focus on metaphysical, epistemological or ethical themes.
PHIL 3306 [0.5 credit]: Symbolic Logic
Term Offered: Winter
Designated Modality: Online
Anticipated Enrollment: 60
Anticipated TA Support: No
*Please note that anticipated TA support is based on anticipated enrollment and may change based on actual enrollment in a course
A review of the basic techniques of propositional and predicate logic. Natural deduction and consistency trees. Soundness and completeness. Alternative semantics. Extensions to basic logic: identity, modal logic with possible world semantics, three valued systems, deontic logic.
Application Procedures and Deadlines
Required Professional Qualifications: MA Degree in the appropriate field.
Closing Date and Time: Monday, June 12, 11:59 pm.
All applicants must apply electronically to the Department Head, at the following link:
https://carleton.ca/philosophy/ci-application-23-24/
Professor Annie Larivée
Chair, Department of Philosophy
c/o rima.sanaallah@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
A note to all applicants: As per Articles 16.3 and 16.4 in the CUPE 4600-2 Collective Agreement, the posted vacancies listed above are first offered to applicants meeting the incumbency criterion. A link to the current CUPE 4600-2 Collective Agreement can be found at the Academic Staff Agreements webpage on the Carleton University Human Resources website http://carleton.ca/hr/collective-agreements/academic-staffing-agreements/ and the CUPE 4600-2 website http://4600.cupe.ca/