Courses

For more information about this course, please check out Dr. Margolis' website.

This course offers an overview of key ideas and arguments in Western philosophy, starting with the Ancient Greeks and moving on down the centuries to contemporary philosophers. We will pay special attention to the work of Descartes and Hume.

COVID-19 notice: Lecture recordings will be posted on Canvas, you need not watch them live.

For more information about this course, please check out Dr. Margolis' website.

Philosophy challenges us with questions that are directed to our most basic intellectual assumptions and forces us to think hard about ourselves and our position in the world. With its focus on arguments, philosophy also brings clarity and rigour to matters that may otherwise seem inherently obscure and perplexing. Different instructors teach PHIL 101 in different ways. The approach I take doesn’t emphasize historical analysis and won’t touch on the many philosophical systems that are associated with the great philosophers of the past. Instead, the course will focus on a small number of philosophical problems and some important ways of thinking about them. Topics include: Does God exist? Do people have souls? Is there free will? Are there objective moral facts?

Further information about this course can be located here: https://www.margolisphilosophy.com/teaching.html

The course offers an overview of Western Philosophy from its beginning up to the present. After a brief overview of Greco-Roman and Medieval Philosophy, we take a closer look at the ground-breaking writings of Descartes and Hume, which did much to pave the way for modern philosophy. We study how the questions they raised, and the ideas and arguments they offered, have been responded to by generations of philosophers down to the present day. Among questions discussed are: “What can we know?” “What ought we do?” and “What can we hope?” (and a plethora of more detailed questions that can be grouped under these three general questions).

Philosophy challenges us with questions that are directed to our most basic intellectual assumptions and forces us to think hard about ourselves and our position in the world. With its focus on arguments, philosophy also brings clarity and rigour to matters that may otherwise seem inherently obscure and perplexing. Different instructors teach PHIL 101 in different ways. The approach I take doesn’t emphasize historical analysis and won’t touch on the many philosophical systems that are associated with the great philosophers of the past. Instead, the course will focus on a small number of philosophical problems and some important ways of thinking about them. Topics include: Does God exist? Do people have souls? Is there free will? Are there objective moral facts?

Further information about this course can be located here: https://www.margolisphilosophy.com/teaching.html

Philosophy challenges us with questions that are directed to our most basic intellectual assumptions and forces us to think hard about ourselves and our position in the world. With its focus on arguments, philosophy also brings clarity and rigour to matters that may otherwise seem inherently obscure and perplexing. Different instructors teach PHIL 101 in different ways. The approach I take doesn’t emphasize historical analysis and won’t touch on the many philosophical systems that are associated with the great philosophers of the past. Instead, the course will focus on a small number of philosophical problems and some important ways of thinking about them. Your job is to adopt a critical stance to the readings and to the lectures, and to develop your own views based on the arguments we work through. Topics include: Does God exist? Are people purely material beings? Do we have free will?

The course offers an overview of Western Philosophy from its beginning up to the present.

Philosophy challenges us with questions that are directed to our most basic intellectual assumptions and forces us to think hard about ourselves and our position in the world. With its focus on arguments, philosophy also brings clarity and rigour to matters that may otherwise seem inherently obscure and perplexing. Different instructors teach PHIL 101 in different ways. The approach I take doesn’t emphasize historical analysis and won’t touch on the many philosophical systems that are associated with the great philosophers of the past. Instead, the course will focus on a small number of philosophical problems and some important ways of thinking about them. Your job is to adopt a critical stance to the readings and to the lectures, and to develop your own views based on the arguments we work through. Topics include: Does God exist? Are people purely material beings? Do we have free will?