Coastal Carolina University



PHIL 105: Critical ThinkingSection 01: MWF 12-12:50 pm, Edwards 250Instructor: Dennis EarlEmail: dearl@coastal.edu Office: Edwards 278Office Phone: 843-349-4094Office Hours: MWF 10:00–11:00 am, TTh 10:00 am–2:00 pm, and by appointmentCATALOG DESCRIPTIONThis is a course in basic reasoning skills, including identifying arguments and types of arguments, evaluating arguments, and defending one’s own views with reason and evidence. Students will build skills in basic empirical and statistical reasoning, avoiding common fallacies, and reasoning in specific contexts such as morality, religion, and politics.COURSE OBJECTIVESStudents will:Develop critical thinking and reasoning skills in different contextsEvaluate argumentsFormulate reasoned defenses of thesesDevelop habits of mind to use the skills of critical thinkingSTUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMESStudents will be able to:Identify argumentsEvaluate arguments through reasoningFormulate arguments for a thesisIdentify patterns of reasoning and types of reasoningIdentify general structures in argumentative writing, such as summaries of a position vs. defenses of that position vs. considering objections vs. replying to objectionsExamine the plausibility of particular arguments.Examine and evaluate collections of arguments for and against various theses concerning a contentious issueFormulate arguments of one’s own in defense of a thesisConsider and reply to objections to one’s own theses and argumentsREQUIRED TEXTSharon Bailin and Mark Battersby, Reason in the Balance: An Inquiry Approach to Critical Thinking, 2nd Ed. (Hackett, 2016) (ISBN 978-1-62466-477-9)COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND GRADINGQuizzes (in class) and short online assignments (on Moodle)30%Homework/take-home assignments (5)35%Tests (2)20%Final exam15%Total100%Grading scale: A≥90%; 85%≥B+>90%; 80%≥B>85%; 75%≥C+>80%; 70%≥C>75%; 65%≥D+>70%; 60%≥D>65%; F<60%THE NATURE OF CRITICAL THINKINGWhat is critical thinking? As a quick definition, critical thinking is rational thinking with the aim of making reasoned judgments and having reasoned beliefs about things. My own view is that we all need to work continuously to reason better—the task never really ends—and the same holds for your time here in college. You should work to improve your reasoning abilities in a course like this one, work on them more in other courses at higher levels, and so on. Thus we have our course.What’s involved in good reasoning skills? First, you need to be able to see and understand pieces of reasoning when they’re presented to you. Call that the skill of identifying arguments. You should also be able to sort arguments into different categories, since different types of arguments are evaluated using different tools. You also need to be able to read an argumentative text and understand both the arguments in it and also its broad structure. What else? You also need to be skilled at evaluating arguments. That means identifying whether a given argument is any good or not, or whether it should be accepted as a good piece of reasoning. A higher-level skill here is formulating arguments of your own. This includes defending your own position on something, and also raising objections to someone else’s arguments. Finally, there is developing the habit of using these skills in your life. It’s wise to think of our skills not just as a set of tools to get out every now and then when the mood strikes, but instead as something that becomes part of your standard way of thinking. How much will you do that? I can encourage you to practice it in the course. Beyond that, what you do to incorporate these skills into your own thinking habits is up to you.How do you learn to reason well? You practice! We will practice the component skills for each of the broader skills just above. With the right kinds of practice, you should see your skills improve. We will practice with all sorts of arguments, and with the idea of practicing identifying, evaluating, and formulating arguments. We’ll also consider reasoning in different contexts and for different subjects, such as in science, in politics, in art, in matters of religion, and in philosophy.ATTENDANCE POLICYI’ll take attendance, but it’s not formally part of the course grade. However, your policy should be to attend class every single time. Missing class even every now and then risks not learning what you need to learn here, and we’ll have graded activities in class, so it’s very important to attend.The CCU Catalog states that “Absences will be excused for documented cases of:a) incapacitating illness, b) official representation of the University (excuses for official representation of the University should be obtained from the official supervising the activity),c) death of a close relative, andd) religious holidays.”I’ll decide on other types of circumstances as they might arise, but I can’t be too accommodating beyond those cases given in the Catalog. The reason for the policy concerning excused absences is this: Quizzes missed due to excused absences won’t be included in the final quiz grade calculation (and thus your other quiz grades will count proportionately more). Quizzes missed due to unexcused absences get a zero.OTHER COURSE POLICIESAcademic misconduct: The CCU Student Code of Conduct (URL: ) includes a statement of community standards for academic integrity, which reads as follows:Coastal Carolina University is an academic community that expects the highest standards of honesty, integrity and personal responsibility. Members of this community are accountable for their actions and are committed to creating an atmosphere of mutual respect and trust.If you are caught committing an academic infraction, I’ll have to report it to the university and apply a sanction. My standard sanction is an FX grade for the whole course. See the Code of Conduct for examples of plagiarism and cheating, as well as procedures and your rights as a student regarding charges of misconduct.Class atmosphere and civility: Our class meetings need to be focused on our material, and with very few distractions. Keep these important maxims in mind:Come to class prepared, having read the material for the day very carefully. There’s no need to bring the textbook to class.Take notes on the reading and during class (not on a device—use a notebook). I’ll often let you use your notes on in-class quizzes and assignments.Devices: Keep your phone and other devices away during class. This is about not distracting you or the rest of us: Learning requires your sole attention, and even with your phone on the ‘vibrate’ setting, that will distract you. I’m sorry, but I have to be strict about this. Science has shown convincingly that humans are really bad at multitasking, and I need your mind on what’s happening in class. Thanks ahead of time for observing this rule. (There might be exceptions where I ask you to look something up. But that will be obvious from what we’re doing in class.)Don’t arrive late or leave early (unless you’ve cleared it with me beforehand). If you leave after a quiz, it’s a zero.Be ready to participate in class and discuss our material actively and critically. Be ready to be called upon, both for facilitating discussion and for my gauging your understanding of our material.Please be polite. I’ve never really had a problem with this, but I would handle excessive cases of incivility as a violation of the Student Code of munications: If I need to contact you, I’ll use your coastal.edu address unless I’m replying to a message you’ve sent me using another address. Use your coastal.edu account or have its email forwarded to an account you check regularly. (“Regularly” means “daily at least.”) Email I send to everyone in the class will go to your coastal.edu address.As for contacting me, emailing me at dearl@coastal.edu is the best option. I’ll usually respond to messages requiring a reply within twenty-four hours, often much less. Please be professional in your communication. Let me know who you are and your class section as necessary. Whatever your query is, make it as clear as you can. Text-style messages don’t leave a good impression.Special needs: If you have a physical or documented mental disability and need accommodations, see me to make the appropriate arrangements. Note that in order to receive such compensation, you need to register with the Office of Accessibility and Disability Services, phone 349-2503, URL . The office is in 106 Kearns Hall.COURSE OUTLINEThe nature and value of critical thinking and inquiryWhat is critical thinking?What is critical “inquiry”?Reading: Bailin and Battersby (B&B), Ch. 1-2(Homework/take-home assignment #1)Arguments and general argumentative structuresidentifying argumentsargument diagrammingconcept mappingdeductive and inductive argumentsDefinitionsclassical definitions in terms of necessary and sufficient conditionsother types of definitionsGeneral argumentative structuressummaries vs. arguments vs. considering objections vs. replying to objectionsa four-step templateReading: B&B, Ch. 3Reading: B&B, Ch. 5 (sections on arguments from analogy and inference to the best explanation)(Homework/take-home assignment #2)Fallacious argumentstypes of fallaciesidentifying fallaciesComplications: Is it really a fallacy or not?Reading: B&B, Ch. 4(Test #1)Evaluating sourcesquestions about credibility and trustquestions about web sourcesquestions about “traditional” text sourcesReading: B&B, Ch. 6(Homework/take-home assignment #3)Critical inquiry, part 1: Identifying an issueWhat is “an issue”?how to describe a contentious issueidentifying crucial questionsReading: B&B, Ch. 7Critical inquiry, part 2: Identifying relevant argumentsidentifying arguments on various sides of an issuethe role of contextargument diagramming, againconcept mapping, againReading: B&B, Ch. 8(Homework/take-home assignment #4)Critical inquiry, part 3: Evaluating argumentsevaluating the main arguments pro and conevaluating subordinate argumentsReading: B&B, Ch. 9Critical inquiry, part 4: Making a reasoned judgmentweighing the competing argumentsmaking a reasoned case for one’s own positionobstaclesfallacies, againcognitive biasesReading: B&B, Ch. 10 and 11(Test #2)Critical thinking practice in different contexts (case studies)critical thinking in the sciences (Reading: B&B, Ch. 12, Ch. 13)inference to the best explanation, againstatistical reasoningcritical thinking in the arts (Reading: B&B, Ch. 14)critical thinking in ethics (Reading: B&B, Ch. 15)critical thinking in philosophy (Reading: B&B, Ch. 16)(Homework/take-home assignment #5)The value of critical thinking revisitedthe virtues of critical thinking and critical inquiryWill all of these skills become real “habits of mind”? Should they? ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download