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Philosophy
Department of Philosophy
St. George, Mississauga AND SCARBOROUGH Campus
Sessional Instructional Assistants
Job Postings for F and Y courses 2007-08
The following jobs are posted in accordance with the CUPE 3902 Unit 3 Collective Agreement
Effective Date: Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Closing Date: Friday, September 7, 2007
How to submit an application
Applicants who have submitted application forms in the past 12 months do not need to resubmit these materials and should just send an email to ta.phil@utoronto.ca indicating which positions they would like to be considered for.
To be considered for a position in a Philosophy course, an application consisting of the Philosophy Department’s custom application form for SIAs on-line from the Department’s website (http://philosophy.utoronto.ca) and a CV of no longer than 3 pages must be submitted to:
TA Coordinator, Dept. of Philosophy, University of Toronto
215 Huron St., 9th Floor, Toronto, M5S 1A2
Fax: 416-978-8703
E-mail applications may be submitted c/o ta.phil@utoronto.ca
Both email and hard copy applications are acceptable. A valid email address is required. Please do not submit additional materials unless requested to do so.
General Information
SALARY
In accordance with the CUPE 3902, unit 3, Collective Agreement, the hourly wage for all SIA positions is $36.17 as of September 1, 2007; and $36.35 as of January 1, 2008 .
Qualifications
For Tutorial Leaders: BA in Philosophy or equivalent; good prior knowledge of the subject-matter of the course; 1 yr.’s prior experience as a Philosophy TA/SIA.
For General Instructional Assistants: BA in Philosophy or equivalent; good prior knowledge of the subject-matter of the course
Duties
For Tutorial Leaders: Leading three tutorial groups of approximately 25 students every week, office hours, and related general teaching duties, such as grading papers, helping students with reading/assignments; possibly some classroom duties (invigilation, lecture attendance, etc.) may be involved.
For General Instructional Assistants: General teaching duties, such as grading papers, helping students with reading/assignments; possibly some classroom duties (invigilation, lecture attendance, etc.) may be involved.
Please note that the contracts for all Instructional Assistants at the SG Philosophy Department and some at UTM Philosophy Department include a minimum of 15 hours lecture attendance. Tutorials and Office hours may be required at specified times.
Tutorial LeaderS:
PHL 105 Y5Y: Introduction to Philosophy UTM
This course is an introduction to some of the central questions of Philosophy. The areas to be studied include logic, epistemology (the study of knowledge) and metaphysics. The first part of the course will be devoted to logic (six weeks); we shall examine techniques for evaluating arguments. The remainder of the course will deal with some problems of epistemology and metaphysics such as: Is there any rational basis for holding religious beliefs; if not, what should one believe about religion? To what extent, if at all, is human freedom possible? Is free will compatible with the findings of such sciences as biology and psychology? What, if anything, can be known with certainty? Are there limits to what can be known? Is a human being just an immensely complicated arrangement of molecules, an intricate physical mechanism?
Instructor: J. Brunning
Lectures: MW 10
Tutorials: Fridays ( Three tutorials between 9 AM – 3 PM)
No. of positions: 1 @ 280 hrs. Est. Enrolment: 150 (approximately 75 students per tutorial leader)
Sessional Dates: September 2007 -April 2008
PHL A10 H3F: Reason and Truth UTSC
An introduction to philosophy focusing on issues of rationality, metaphysics and the theory of knowledge. Topics may include: the nature of mind, freedom, the existence of God, the nature and knowability of reality. These topics will generally be introduced through the study of key texts from the history of philosophy.
Instructor: W. Seager
Lectures: TR 11:00-12:00
Tutorials: Some flexibility: 3 hrs Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday
No. of positions: 1 @ 150 hrs. Est. Enrolment: 450 (approximately 75 students per tutorial leader).
Sessional Dates: September-December 2007
GENERAL TEACHING ASSISTANTS
PHL210Y5Y – 17th & 18th Century Philosophy M & W 10:30-12:00 Paul Franks
In the seventeenth century, some philosophers came to see themselves as inaugurating a new, “modern” philosophy, decisively different from the philosophy of their predecessors. Through a combination of innovation and reinterpretation of the philosophical tradition, they developed distinctive conceptions of nature, the mind, ethics and politics, and we still struggle with versions of these today. What is new in modern philosophy? What endures? What is gained and what is lost in modernity? Do modern, technological developments presuppose a distinctive range of attitudes towards individual and social life? We will pursue these questions through close, critical study of seven essential modern philosophers – Descartes, Locke and Spinoza in the fall; Leibniz, Newton, Hume, and Kant in the winter – following the trajectory of modern philosophy from Copernicus on the revolutions of the heavenly bodies to Kant’s Copernican revolution in philosophy.
Instructor: P. Franks
Lectures: MW 10:30-12:00
No. of positions: 1 @200 hrs. Estimated enroment: 110
Sessional Dates: September 2007 -April 2008
PHL 245 H5F : Modern Symbolic Logic UTM
This course is an introduction to logic, requiring no prior knowledge of philosophy or mathematics. It will cover the standard material of elementary symbolic logic: sentential logic and quantificational logic. The central aim of the course is to impart a skill, the ability to recognize and construct formal deductions; but considerable emphasis will be placed on applications of symbolic logic to ordinary language. Evaluation: Grades will be determined on the basis of two in-class tests and a final examination.Required Text: Kalish, Montague, and Mar: Logic, Techniques of Formal Reasoning, 2nd ed., 1980
Instructor: J. Brunning
Lectures: MW 12:00-1:30 PM
NOTE: lecture attendance each week on one of these two days is required.
Office hours (at UTM): Fridays 12-2 PM
No. of positions: 2 @ 105 hrs. Est. Enrolment: 185
Sessional Dates: September-December 2007
PHL 247 H5F Critical Reasoning Jackie Brunning
This is a course in critical thinking and is aimed at examining how language can be used to change or support people’s beliefs. It begins broadly by looking at the range of uses to which speech and writing can be put, and then focuses on ways of persuading and convincing. When it does so it concentrates on determining first, basic argument structure when it is embedded in natural language use, second, conditions for accepting or rejecting claims made in support of an argument, and third, conditions under an argument can be called compelling.
Instructor: J. Brunning
Lectures: M 6:00-9:00 PM
No. of Positions: 1 @ 90 hrs. Est. enrolment: 160
Sessional Dates: September-December 2007
PHL B55 H3F: Puzzles and Paradoxes UTSC
Philosophy often begins with a puzzle or paradox. Zeno once convincingly argued that motion was impossible, but people continue to move. The "liar's paradox" seems to show that everything is both true and false, but that cannot be right. In this course, we will puzzle through these and related issues.
Instructor: D. Laverty
Lectures: TR 9:00-11:00 AM
No. of Positions: 1 @ 70 hrs. Est. enrolment: 85
PHL282 H1F Ethics: Death and Dying SG
Strictly speaking, this is a bioethics course, focused on the moral and legal concerns surrounding the matter of death and dying in contemporary Western culture. Yet, rather than limiting our discussion to the technical concerns of bioethicists (i.e. the clinical definition of death, the relationship between care-givers and the dying, suicide, passive and active euthanasia, foregoing and withholding treatment, etc.), we will take the opportunity this course affords to explore some of the broader questions about death and dying that have plagued philosophers from Plato to the present. As unpleasant, and indeed, as unreal as the idea of our own impending death may be, it nevertheless can and does act as a powerful motive force, prompting deep philosophical thinking about the value and meaning of life, and how we ought best to philosophy undergraduate bulletin live that life. Accordingly, in the early part of this course, we will sample some of these thoughts on our finitude, drawn from the history of Western philosophy, and move on in the second part of the course to explore in more detail the current concerns of bioethicists.
Instructor: K. Jahn
Lectures: W 6:00-9:00 PM
No. of Positions: 1 @ 60 hrs. Est. enrolment: 125
Sessional Dates: September-December 2007
IMPORTANT NOTES:
- All positions are tentative, pending budgetary approval and final course enrolments.
- Please note that, with respect to the hiring of Sessional Instructional Assistants, the Unit 3 collective agreement affirms that the provisions of Article 14:03(a) of the CUPE Local 3902, Unit 1 Collective Agreement (extending preference in hiring to students enrolled in the School of Graduate Studies of the University of Toronto or prospective graduate students who have made application to be so enrolled), take precedence as between Unit 1 and Unit 3.
- Applicants who have submitted CVs and application forms in the past 12 months do not need to resubmit these materials and should just send an email indicating which positions they would like to be considered for.