Fall/Winter Courses Schedule for 2023-2024
The Institute offers 100-level, 200-level, 300-level, and 400-level History and Philosophy of Science and Technology (HPS) courses.
Course descriptions are not final and may be changed at or before the first class. For enrolment instructions, students should consult the Course Planning
Course Timetable
Course numbers are linked to course descriptions. The courses below are listed in numerical order. The descriptions here are fuller than those in the Faculty of Arts & Science Calendar.
These lists show only those courses which will be offered in the 2022-2023 Sessions. For brief descriptions of courses not offered in the current year, refer to the Complete List of Undergraduate Courses.
Course Nomenclature
- H1-F = "First Term"; the first term of the Fall/Winter Session (September - December)
- H1-S = "Second Term"; the second term of the Fall/Winter Session (January - April)
- Y1-Y = full session (September - April)
- Students should note that courses designated as "...Y1F" or "...Y1S" in the Timetable are particulary demanding.
Delivery Methods
- In Person - A course is considered In Person if it requires attendance at a specific location and time for some or all course activities.**** Subject to adjustments imposed by public health requirements for physical distancing.
- Online - Synchronous - A course is considered Online Synchronous if online attendance is expected at a specific time for some or all course activities, and attendance at a specific location is not expected for any activities or exams.
- Asynchronous - A course is considered Asynchronous if it has no requirement for attendance at a specific time or location for any activities or exams.
Fall 2023
HPS100H1: Introduction to History and Philosophy of Science and Technology
Course instructors: Elise Burton/TBA (24 Lectures, 10 Tutorials)
Tuesdays 11-1 Classroom Location: NF 003
Delivery Method: Lectures and Tutorials – In-personAn investigation of some pivotal periods in the history of science with an emphasis on the influences of philosophy on the scientists of the period, and the philosophical and social implications of the scientific knowledge, theory and methodology that emerged.
Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Humanities or Science course
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)HPS120H1: How to Think About Science
Course instructor: Cory Lewis (24 Lectures, 10 Tutorials)
Thursdays 1-3 Classroom Location: HS 610
Delivery Method: Lectures and Tutorials – In-personThis course addresses the nature of science and its importance to our understanding of ourselves. Questions include: What is a science? Is science objective? What is scientific reasoning? Has our conception of science changed through history? How does science shape our moral image? Does science reveal our natures as humans?
Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Humanities course
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)Winter 2024
HPS110H1: The Science of Human Nature
Course instructors: Marga Vicedo and Mark Solovey (24 Lectures, 10 Tutorials)
Tuesdays 1-3 Classroom Location: NF 003
Delivery Method: Lectures and Tutorials – In-personWhy do we do what we do? What factors play a role in shaping our personality? What biological and social elements help configure a person’s moral and emotional character? In this course, we examine landmark studies that shook standard beliefs about human nature in their time. We analyze those studies in their historical context and discuss their relevance to social, ethical, and policy debates. The studies may include research on mother love, obedience, conformity, bystander intervention in emergencies, deception, race and gender stereotypes.
Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Humanities or Science course
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)HPS120H1: How to Think About Science
Course instructor: Cory Lewis (24 Lectures, 10 Tutorials)
Thursdays 1-3 Classroom Location: AH 100
Delivery Method: Lectures and Tutorials – In-personThis course addresses the nature of science and its importance to our understanding of ourselves. Questions include: What is a science? Is science objective? What is scientific reasoning? Has our conception of science changed through history? How does science shape our moral image? Does science reveal our natures as humans?
Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Humanities course
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)Fall 2023
HPS200H1: Science and Values
Course instructor: Yiftach Fehige (24 Lectures)
Thursdays 11-1 Classroom Locations: BR 200
Delivery Method: Lectures – In-personAn introduction to issues at the interface of science and society, including the reciprocal influence of science and social norms, the relation of science and religion, dissemination of scientific knowledge, science and policy. Issues may include: Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Weapons; Genetic Engineering; The Human Genome Project; Climate Change.
Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Humanities course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)An introduction to issues at the interface of science and society, including the reciprocal influence of science and social norms, the relation of science and religion, dissemination of scientific knowledge, science and policy. Issues may include: Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Weapons; Genetic Engineering; The Human Genome Project; Climate Change.
Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Humanities course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)HPS202H1: Technology in the Modern World
Course instructor: Adrien Zakar (24 Lectures, 10 Tutorials)
Mondays 3-5 Classroom Location: NF 003
Delivery Method: Lectures and Tutorials – In-personThis course examines the reciprocal relationship between technology and society since 1800 from the perspectives of race, class, and gender. From the role of European imperial expansion in 19th-century industrialization and mechanization to the development of nuclear technology, smartphones, and digital computers in the 20th century, we consider cultural responses to new technologies, and the ways in which technology operates as an historical force in the history of the modern world.
Preparation: HPS201H1
Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Humanities course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)HPS203H1: Making Sense of Uncertainty
Course instructor: Chen-Pang Yeang (24 Lectures, 10 Tutorials)
Mondays 10-12 Classroom Location: VC 323
Delivery Method: Lectures and Tutorials – In-personThis course examines issues of uncertainty in various contexts of science, technology, and society since the 19th century. Topics may include randomized controlled trials, statistical identification of normal and pathological, biopolitics, philosophical interpretations of probability, Brownian motions, uncertainty principle in quantum mechanics, cybernetic mind, and chance in avant-garde arts.
Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Humanities course
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)HPS205H1: Science, Technology, and Empire
Course instructor: Elise Burton (24 Lectures, 10 Tutorials)
Mondays 1-3 Classroom Location: VC 323
Delivery Method: Lectures and Tutorials – In-personThis gateway course introduces the emergence of the modern science and technology and the rise of European mercantile and colonial empires as closely intertwined processes. Beginning with the European discovery of the Americas, this course provides a broad thematic overview of the transformation of scientific practices in imperial contexts, including but not limited to geography and cartography; medical botany and plantation agriculture; biogeography and evolutionary biology; ecology and environmentalism; and race science and anthropology. The course primarily focuses on British and French colonial contexts in South Asia, Africa, Australasia and the Americas, but also considers Iberian, Russian, Dutch, and other imperial formations.
Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Humanities course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)VIC207H1: Genetic Technologies: Scientific Promises and Ethical Dilemmas - CANCELLED
Course instructor: Marga Vicedo (24 Seminars, 10 Tutorials)
Thursdays 2-4 Classroom Location: VC 101
Delivery Method: Seminars and Tutorials – In-personThis course examines the ethical dilemmas raised by new genetic technologies. It explores the scientific possibilities they open as well as the potential moral questions they raise. The topics covered might include: Eugenics, the human genome project, behavioral genetics, genetics and race, genetic screening, gene editing and therapy, gene doping in sports, animal and human cloning, and genetic enhancement.
Exclusion: VIC107H1
Distribution Requirements: This is a Humanities or Social Science course
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)HPS272H1: Science against Religion? A Complex History (formerly HPS326H1)
Course instructor: Yiftach Fehige (24 Lectures)
Fridays 10-12 Classroom Location: VC 115
Delivery Method: Lectures – In-personThis course introduces to the central topics arising from the encounter between modern science and religion. It aims to integrate historical and philosophical perspectives Did modern science arise because of Christianity or despite of it? Are science and religion necessarily in conflict? Have they factually always been in conflict throughout history? Are proofs of God's existence obsolete? Has science secularized society? What role should religions play in liberal democracies?
Exclusions: HPS326H1
Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Humanities course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)Winter 2024
HPS200H1: Science and Values
Course instructor: Yiftach Fehige (24 Lectures)
Thursdays 11-1 Classroom Location: HS 610
Delivery Method: Lectures – In-person
Winter 2024An introduction to issues at the interface of science and society, including the reciprocal influence of science and social norms, the relation of science and religion, dissemination of scientific knowledge, science and policy. Issues may include: Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Weapons; Genetic Engineering; The Human Genome Project; Climate Change.
Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Humanities course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)HPS212H: Global Digital: Information, Computing, and Communication in the Modern World
Course instructor: Chen-Pang Yeang (24 Lectures, 10 Tutorials)
Mondays 10-12 Classroom Location: VC 323
Delivery Method: Lectures and Tutorials – In-person
HPS212H: Global Digital: Information, Computing, and Communication in the Modern WorldFrom integrated circuits and the internet to social media and machine learning, digital technologies are a crucial part of modern life. How have they been developed in the contexts of the Cold War, neoliberal economic order, mass media, and crowdsourcing? In what ways have they shaped sociability, governance, production, and reasoning? How have they intertwined with the changing scientific understandings of the worlds? In this course, we examine select digital technologies and their co-production with society. We emphasize their global aspects: international tech ecosystems, transnational research and development, and political or cultural transformations facilitated by digital devices or systems.
Recommended Preparation: 1 HPS half-course
Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Humanities course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)HPS222H1 - Science, Paradoxes, and Knowledge
Course instructor: Joseph Berkovitz (24 Lectures, 10 Tutorials)
Tuesdays 2-4 Classroom Location: BA 1170
Delivery Method: Lectures and Tutorials – In-personThe course will focus on the bearings that philosophical views had on science in different periods in history. We shall consider philosophical conceptions of space, time, and matter in Ancient Greece, the Early Modern Period and the 20th century; the influence of religious views on science in the 17th and 18th centuries; the analysis of scientific knowledge in the 17th and 18th centuries; and 20th century views of the nature of science and its history.
Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Humanities course
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)HPS240H1 - The Influence of the Eugenics Movement on Contemporary Society
Course instructor: TBA (24 Lectures, 10 Tutorials)
Thursdays 3-5 Classroom Location: VC 323
Delivery Method: Lectures and Tutorials – In-personThis course explores present-day topics such as reproductive issues (including “designer babies” and genetic counselling), gender, racism/colonialism, disability and euthanasia through the lens of the history of eugenics. A “scientific” movement which became popular around the world in the early twentieth century, eugenics was based on the principle that certain undesirable human characteristics were hereditary and could be eliminated by controlled reproduction. It resulted in the enactment of laws in numerous places, including Canada, authorizing coerced reproductive sterilization of certain individuals, and other measures intended to “improve” humanity. Today, we see its influences woven through contemporary debates, a number of which we will consider.
Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Humanities course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)HPS250H1 - Introductory Philosophy of Science
Course instructor: TBA (24 Lectures, 10 Tutorials)
Fridays 1-3 Classroom Location: EM 001
Delivery Method: Lectures and Tutorials – In-personThis course introduces and explores central issues in the philosophy of science, including scientific inference and method, and explanation. Topics may include underdetermination, realism, and empiricism, and laws of nature.
Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Humanities course
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)Fall 2023
HPS319H1: History of Medicine II
Course instructor: Lucia Dacome (24 Lectures, 10 Tutorials)
Tuesdays 2-4 Classroom Location: VC215
Delivery Method: Lectures and Tutorials – In-personThis course examines the development of medicine from the seventeenth to the twentieth century. It focuses on the historical development of medicine in relation to societies, politics and culture and considers topics such as changing views of the body, the development of medical institutions such as hospitals, asylums and laboratories, the diversified world of healing and the place of visual and material culture in the production and dissemination of medical knowledge.
Prerequisite: First year students must have instructors’ approval
Exclusion: HPS314Y1; HPS315H1
Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Humanities course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)HPS321H1: Understanding Engineering Practice: From Design to Entrepreneurship
Course instructor: Chen-Pang Yeang (24 Seminars, 10 Tutorials)
Tuesdays 10-12 Classroom Location: VC 101
Delivery Method: Seminars and Tutorials – In-personThis course seeks to understand the nature of engineering practice, which comprises complex social, intellectual, and technical actions at various stages from design to entrepreneurship. Building upon the history and social studies of technology, philosophy of engineering, business history, and management science, we introduce ways to analyze such complex actions.
Prerequisite: Three courses with any combination of engineering, natural sciences, medical sciences, or commerce courses
Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Humanities course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)HPS346H1 - Modifying and Optimizing Life: on the Peculiar Alliance between AI, Biology, and Engineering
Course instructor: Alex Djedovic (24 Lectures)
Thursdays 9-11 Classroom Location: VC 101
Delivery Method: Lectures – In-personTaking cue from the entanglements that historically have pervaded the relation between biology and information technology since the early 20C century, this course interrogates the sociocultural and technological conjuncture that has brought computer science, biology and engineering together into peculiar, ingenious, and often controversial alliances. What do AI, synthetic biology, and biotechnology have in common? How have they come to be associated? What are the debates and ethics emerging from such associations? The course will focus on topics such as: geoengineering and bioremediation; GMO and Robotic insects; the use of expert systems and machine learning to optimize synthetic biology; the flourishing and marketing of precision and personalized medicine/immunotherapy; and the ethics behind CRISPR babies.
Prerequisite: Completion of 4.0 credits
Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Humanities course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)HPS390H1 - The Story of Number: Mathematics from the Babylonians to the Scientific Revolution (Cross-listed with MAT390H1)
Course instructor: Sylvia Nickerson (36 Lectures, 10 Practicals)
Mondays 10-1 Classroom Location: BR 200
Mondays 12-1 Classroom Location: BT 101
Delivery Method: Lectures – In-personA survey of ancient, medieval and early modern mathematics, with emphasis on historical issues. (Offered in alternate years)
Prerequisite: At least 1.0 credit at the 200+level from CSC/MAT/STA
Exclusion: HPS310Y1; MAT220Y1
Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Humanities or Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)Winter 2024
HPS300H1 - Topics in the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology: the history and philosophy of social media
Course instructor: Cory Lewis (24 Lectures, 10 Tutorials)
Mondays 3-5
Delivery Method: Lectures and Tutorials – Fully OnlineThis course will look at philosophical and historical questions that confront us because of the emergence of social media. In many ways, the social media poses the same basic questions as older media. For example, what makes an argument good, how should we best organize our society, and how does language connect us? But there is a sense in which these questions take on new aspects on the internet, not least because of its massive scale. Instant global communication has changed how we relate to each other, socially and politically. We will do our best to grapple with these changes, looking at how they developed over the last few decades and what they mean philosophically.
Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Humanities course
Breadth Requirement: NoneHPS301H1 - Topics in the History of Science: Exploring Values in Science and Engineering Practice
Course instructor: Rachel Katz (24 Lectures)
Fridays 1-3 Classroom Location: BA1230
Delivery Method: Lectures – In-personIn this course, students will explore values in science in the context of engineering practice. In addition to weekly seminar-style meetings, students will work alongside Engineering ESC204 students to understand the ways in which values shape and contribute to engineering practice. This non-traditional course will allow students to develop both academic and multi-disciplinary collaborative skills.
Timetable Instructions: Students taking this course need to attend the Friday HPS301H1 course meetings in weeks 1 to 12. In addition, during weeks 4, 5, 6, and 7 of the term, students also have mandatory course meetings with Engineering ESC204 on Wednesdays from 10 to 12 and on Fridays from 12 to 1 and from 3 to 5.
Prerequisites: Two humanities courses, at least one of them at the 200 level or higher. Recommended Preparation: This course presupposes that students have experience and are comfortable writing university-level essays. Ideally, they also have some experience doing university-level research in the humanities and are familiar with the humanistic study of science and technology, for example by having taken one or more HPS courses or a course in another unit that examines science and technology in social context and with attention to ethical matters.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief, and Behaviour (2HPS316H1 – Environment, Technology, and Nature
Course instructor: Rebecca Woods (24 Lectures, 10 Tutorials)
Thursdays 12-2 Classroom Location: VC 212
Delivery Method: Lectures and Tutorials – In-personThis course examines the intersection of technology and environment in the modern world. Whether simple or complex, whether designed for recreation, work, or warfare, our tools and how we use them filter our perceptions of, and engagements with, non-human nature. Emphasis is on case studies from 1800 to the present.
Prerequisite: 0.5 FCE in HPS or History
Recommended Preparation: HPS202H1
Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Humanities course
Breadth Requirement: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)HPS318H1 - History of Medicine I
Course instructor: Lucia Dacome (24 Lectures, 10 Tutorials)
Tuesdays 11-1 Classroom Location: VC 323
Delivery Method: Lectures and Tutorials – In-personThis course explores how medicine was practiced, taught and theorized from ancient Greece to the early modern period. It focuses on the historical development of western medicine in relation to societies, politics and culture, and considers topics such as the creation of medical traditions, the transmission and communication of medical knowledge, the pluralistic world of healers, the role of religion, magic and natural philosophy, the cultural meaning of disease, and the emergence of institutions such as the hospital.
Prerequisite: First year students must have instructors’ approval
Exclusion: HPS314Y1
Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Humanities course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)HPS324H1 - Natural Science & Social Issues
Course instructor: Yiftach Fehige (24 Lectures)
Fridays 10-12 Classroom Location: VC 115
Delivery Method: Lectures – In-personHistorical examination of the interactions of science (both as body of knowledge and as enterprise) with ideological, political and social issues. The impact of science; attacks on and critiques of scientific expertise as background to contemporary conflicts. Subjects may vary according to students’ interests. (offered irregularly)
Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Humanities course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)HPS340H1 - The Limits of Machine Intelligence
Course instructor: TBA (24 Lectures, 10 Tutorials)
Thursdays 9-11 Classroom Location: VC 212
Delivery Method: Lectures and Tutorials – In-personWith the recent headline-making breakthroughs in deep learning neural networks (DNNs), it might seem that we are on the cusp of living with artificial systems that match or exceed human intelligence. But there remain longstanding philosophical challenges around the definition of intelligence that AI researchers use, how they measure the performance of their systems, and what DNNS could really be capable of, that still need addressing. For example, how close are DNNs to passing the Turing test? How close are we to building general intelligence and what do we need to get us there? How can we draw fair and meaningful comparisons between artificial and biological systems? We will draw on material from the history and philosophy of science to evaluate and inform current debates around the limits of AI. For example, we’ll consider what kinds of explanations DNNs can provide. We’ll also look at how debates between the rationalists and empiricists (e.g. Locke, Hume, and Kant) inform current debates between AI nativists and empiricists. This course explores these questions through contemporary texts across the fields of philosophy of science, artificial intelligence, comparative psychology, and cognitive science, among others.
Prerequisite: Completion of 4.0 credits including 0.5 credit in any HPS/ PHL/ COG course. Students who do not have all of these prerequisites are encouraged to contact the instructor.
Exclusion: HPS300H1 (Topics in History and Philosophy of Science and Technology: The Limits of Machine Intelligence), offered in Winter 2021 and Fall 2021
Recommended Preparation: One of HPS220H1/ HPS255H1/ PHL342H1/ COG250Y1/ CSC199H1/ SMC199H1
Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Humanities course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)HPS391H1 - Rebels who Count: The History of Mathematics from 1700 to the present (Cross-listed with MAT391H1)
Course instructor: Sylvia Nickerson (36 Lectures, 10 Practicals)
Mondays 1-3 Classroom Location: MP 202
Mondays 3-4 Classroom Location: AH 107
Delivery Method: Lectures – In-personA survey of the development of mathematics from 1700 to the present with emphasis on historical issues.
Prerequisite: At least 1.0 credit at the 200+level from CSC/MAT/STA
Exclusion: HPS310Y1; MAT220Y1, MAT391H1
Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Humanities or Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)
Fall 2023
HPS412H1 - History of the Biological Sciences
Course instructor: Marga Vicedo (24 Seminars)
Fridays 1-3 Classroom Location: VC 304
Delivery Method: Seminars – In-personAdvanced level survey of biological science from ancient Greece to the 20th century emphasizing primary sources analyses.
Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Humanities course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)HPS450H1 - Revolution in Science
Course instructor: Joseph Berkovitz (24 Seminars)
Tuesdays 10-12 Classroom Location: VC 211
Delivery Method: Seminars – In-personA detailed investigation into a highly celebrated and important philosophical idea concerning the development of scientific knowledge: the notion of scientific revolutions. We will consider the process of theory change, whether theory choice is rational, and whether theoretical terms, such as light and space preserve their meanings across revolutions. In addition to classic work by Kuhn, we shall consider approaches that were inspired by Kuhn’s work. In particular, we will consider the approaches of sociologists of scientific knowledge. The course is taught as a seminar in which the students play an active role in presenting and discussing the readings.
Prerequisite: HPS250H1 or permission of instructor
Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Humanities course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)Winter 2024
HPS411H1: Conceptual Foundations of Mathematics
Course instructor: Sylvia Nickerson (23 Seminars)
Mondays 10-12 Classroom Location: VC 304
Delivery Method: Seminars – In-personAn examination of foundational and conceptual aspects of mathematics such as: the nature of mathematical objects, logicism, Church’s elementalistic mathematics, Gödel’s theorem and formal systems, postulational methods, mathematics and reality, the cardinal, ordinal and abstract approaches to numbers, infinity, and Euclidean and non-Euclidean geometries. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.
Prerequisite: PHL245H1/HPS390H1 or HPS391H1 or HPS410H1
Exclusion: PHL346H1
Distribution Requirement Status: Humanities or Science
Breadth Requirement: The Physical and Mathematical Universes (5)HPS444H1: Health, Medicine, and Society in the Mediterranean World
Course instructor: Lucia Dacome (24 Seminars)
Tuesdays 3-5 Classroom Location: VC 304
Delivery Method: Seminars – In-personThis course examines healing practices and medical knowledge in the Mediterranean world, focusing on the early modern period. We will address topics such as the interplay between medicine and religion, the relationship between patients and practitioners, and the role of women as both healers and patients and across Mediterranean shores. We will also consider how individuals in different Mediterranean regions experienced the relationship between health and the environment, explore the bearings that medical pursuits had on the creation and consolidation of notions of sex and gender, and examine how medical knowledge shaped views of the body and informed health policies.
Prerequisites: This course presupposes having some background in the history of medicine and/or history of science and having engaged in historical research projects. It is highly recommended that students have taken one or more courses in History of Medicine (or History of Science and/or Technology)
Recommended preparation: HPS318H1 or HPS319H1, or a 0.5 HPS or HIS credit with a focus on the history of science at the 200-level or higher
Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Humanities course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)