PHILOSOPHY 202 (Critical Thinking): Section 03

THIS HANDOUT CONTAINS IMPORTANT COURSE RELATED INFORMATION

AND USEFUL HINTS ON HOW TO DO WELL. FOR THIS REASON, YOU

SHOULD KEEP IT IN A SAFE PLACE, SO THAT YOU CAN REFER TO IT

WHENEVER YOU NEED TO.

Time: 2.00 - 3.15pm Tuesday and Thursday.

Location: Griffin Hall (HLG) 505

Text: Govier, T., (1997), *A Practical Study of Argument*

(4th Edn.), Wadsworth Pub. Co.

Instructor: Istvan S. N. Berkeley.

Office: HLG 559 (Griffin Hall)

Tel. and voice mail: 482-6807

E-mail: istvan@usl.edu

Office Hours: TBA.

Class web page: http://www.ucs.usl.edu/~isb9112/dept/phil202

Grading: The final grade you receive in this course will be

determined according to the following weighting;

Assignment 1 20%

Assignment 2 20%

Assignment 3 25%

*Homework 10%

Final Exam 25%

* Short homework exercises will be assigned for most classes. Most will not be collected in or graded. However, on randomly selected days homework will be collected, but not graded. You will receive points for attempting to do the homework. For this reason you should (a) not miss class, (b) always do your homework and (c) always bring your homework to class. Only homework exercises collected during class will be accepted. If you fail to bring your homework to class, you will not receive credit.

Course policies

(1) PLAGIARISM & CHEATING: Plagiarism and cheating are

serious academic offenses. They are strictly forbidden in

this course and will be dealt with severely (MINIMUM penalty

will be an automatic F for the course). Students are advised

to familiarize themselves with University Regulations on

this matter, as the definitions found in section V of the

*USL Undergraduate Bulletin* (p. 409) will be applied in all

cases.

(2) ASSIGNMENTS: Assignments should be double spaced and

typed whenever possible. Handwritten assignments must be

neatly printed and easily legible to be accepted. Students

are strongly encouraged to type assignments whenever

possible. COLLABORATION ON ASSIGNMENTS IS EXPRESSLY

FORBIDDEN.

(3) DEADLINES: Deadlines for assignments will be announced

when the assignments are handed out. All deadlines are final. Only in exceptional circumstances will extensions be granted (good reason and supporting evidence must be provided - e.g. a medical certificate, in the case of illness). All extensions are at the instructor's discretion. Assignments are due at the beginning of the specified class.

(4) WRITTEN ENGLISH: All work submitted for this course must

be in good, grammatical English. Students for whom English is a second language will be accommodated, however.

(5) READINGS: Students will be expected to do the assigned

reading before each class. The readings for the next class will be assigned the class before. For this reason, it is essential that students plan to attend every single class.

(6) HOMEWORK: Students will be expected to do exercises on

each of the topics covered in the course. Regular practice of the techniques covered in this class is an essential aid to getting a good grade in this course. Homework will be

assigned at the end of each class. Randomly selected homework exercises will be collected.

EMERGENCY EVACUATION PROCEDURES: A map of this floor is

posted near the elevator marking the evacuation route and the Designated Rescue Area. This is an area where emergency

service personnel will go first to look for individuals who

need assistance in exiting the building. Students who may

need assistance in exiting should identify themselves to the

teaching faculty.

Additional Course Materials

The overhead slides from the class will be made available to students via the world wide web. Access to these slides will require the use of an ID and password, which will be announced in class. Your regular UCS ID will not give access to the slides. However, all students should take steps to ensure that their UCS ID is activated, so as to ensure that you have access to USL computing facilities. World wide web browsing facilities are available for student use in the Conference Center. Please note, you may have to give the ID and password twice in order to gain access. In order to access slides, students should direct their web browsers to

http://www.usl.edu/Departments/Philosophy and follow the links for students. The slides may be directly accessed at

http://www.ucs.usl.edu/~isb9112/dept/phil202. Students are strongly encouraged to make use of this facility. Copies of old assignments are also available on the web page (current assignments will also be posted). Students should use old assignments for practice purposes and as style guides for current assignments. Please report any problems, as well as any comments you might have to istvan@USL.edu.

Course Overview

The following topics will be covered in this course:

(1) Arguments verses non-arguments

(2) Taming arguments in the 'wild' - standardization

(3) Assessing arguments - the ARG Conditions

(4) Assessing Premises

(5) The informal fallacies

(6) Categorical logic

(7) Propositional logic

(8) Induction (time permitting)

GENERAL INFORMATION: Critical thinking is a skill and, as

such, it requires regular practice. Learning critical

thinking has more in common with learning a language, or

learning to play a musical instrument, than it does with

subject areas which require simple memorization of facts.

For this reason, students should plan, on a regular basis,

to put time aside for practicing their critical thinking

skills. Ideally, students should spend 20 or so minutes at

least three times a week doing exercises (in addition to assigned homework).

The skills you learn in this class are cumulative. That is

to say, the skills learned whilst studying one topic will be

presupposed by later topics. This is the reason why it is

important to keep up with the homework exercises assigned at

the end of each class. Although students often find critical

thinking challenging at first, with practice skills develop

with remarkable speed. If you find that you are not having any success with the exercises, then it is important that you consult the instructor. Often minor misunderstandings can lead to all sorts of difficulties. Please feel free to approach the instructor for help at any time if you encounter problems. However, ensure that you have done all the required reading and consulted your class notes and other class materials on the topic which you are having problems with before doing so.