This course takes place on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəýəm (Musqueam) People.
All sections of PHIL 102 address basic problems and methods of philosophy. This section covers topics in ethics, epistemology, political philosophy, and aesthetics relating to local Indigenous societies in the context of settler colonialism. The course adopts a primary focus on Musqueam, extending its view outwards to Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh, as well as to the rest of BC and beyond. The principal areas addressed are:
The philosophy of art and storytelling, with emphases on:
Relationships between art and power,
Cultural appropriation,
Stereotyping and reclamation, and
Story-based knowledge;
Epistemologies of knowledge and ignorance;
Environmental ethics; and
Philosophies of power and oppression, in particular as applied to:
The marginalization of Indigenous peoples under Canadian colonialism,
Anti-Indigenous structural racism in North American contexts, and
UBC’s past and present position within the colonial power structure.