Bachelor of Behavioural Science - Postsecondary Education Quality ...

Upper
or
Lower
Lower
Lower
Course Title
People, Mind and
Body: Selfish
Thoughts
(Advanced Level)
PHIL 412
Performance
Enhancing Drugs
Calendar Course Description
digital technology, especially on the internet, enables people to
connect with others in revolutionary new ways. Digital
technology has transformed how we exchange information,
communicate, and form intimate and professional relationships.
This course focuses on social networking sites and how they
facilitate and enhance communication online and are used by
people to coordinate, change, and organize events in the real
world. In fact, as students will learn, the distinction between the
real world and the digital-virtual world is blurred by such activity.
Students will assess a number of quantitative and qualitative
studies from an international and multi-disciplinary perspective,
investigating how social networking has transformed privacy,
impression management, strategic writing, word-of-mouth
communication, intimacy, political protest, therapy, health
research, and collaborative efforts in the workplace.
In our daily lives, we often claim that we care a great deal about
―self-expression.‖ We might also worry about being ―true to
ourselves,‖ and about acquiring greater ―self-knowledge.‖ Our
bookstores are increasingly full of books described as offering
―self help.‖ But what exactly is this ―self‖ that needs to know
itself, express itself, be true to itself, and why does it need so
much help in doing so
In this course, we will explore some of the classic philosophical
answers to the question of what makes a self. Some will say
that it‘s all about having a soul. Others will say that it‘s our
memories that make us who we are. We will even take a serious
look at a theory which claims that there is no such thing as a
self! But while we will have one eye trained on the grand
philosophical visions of such figures as Rene Descartes, John
Locke, David Hume, and Jean-Paul Sartre, we will have another
eye directed towards the research of contemporary
psychologists and neurologists such as Stanley Milgram, Philip
Zimbardo, Antonio Damascio, and Oliver Sacks. These
scientific perspectives sometimes support one or another of the
philosophical theories about human nature, while at other times
they give us excellent reason to think that the philosophers –and
our common sense –has got things completely wrong. What
they never do, however, is to put the philosophers out of work.
The more that science has to tell us about human nature, the
more deeply mysterious becomes that ―self‖ that I think I am.
This course examines the science behind many of the
commercially available ergogenic aids in today‘s society,
including: caffeine, protein supplements, fat burning
supplements, creatine, and sodium bicarbonate. Students will
also explore the scientific aspects of illegal performance
enhancing drugs (PED) used by both amateur and professional
athletes, musicians, and surgeons, including: Amphetamines,
Bachelor of Behavioural Science Section D, Page 83