PHL 108 - Critical Thinking

three credits
A course in informal logic concentrating on the evaluation of reasoning in “real life” contexts. The material for analysis will be drawn from newspaper editorials, political speeches, media articles, textbooks, advertisements, etc.; we will concentrate on arguments about issues of current public interest. The following topics will be emphasized: the identification of arguments; techniques for portraying argument structure; the evaluation and criticism of arguments; informal fallacies; the influence of language on clear thinking. This course is designed for students with no previous background in philosophy. Students who complete this course should not enroll in PHL 110.