Fall 2018 - PHIL 105 D100

Critical Thinking (3)

Class Number: 2768

Delivery Method: In Person

Overview

  • Course Times + Location:

    Sep 4 – Dec 3, 2018: Tue, Thu, 11:30 a.m.–12:20 p.m.
    Burnaby

  • Exam Times + Location:

    Dec 6, 2018
    Thu, 12:00–3:00 p.m.
    Burnaby

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

An introduction to the evaluation of arguments as they are encountered in everyday life. The central aim will be to sharpen skills of reasoning and argumentation by understanding how arguments work and learning to distinguish those which actually prove what they set out to show from those which do not. Open to all students. Student with credit for PHIL XX1 may not take this course for further credit. Q/Breadth-Social Sci/Sciences.

COURSE DETAILS:

The official name of this course, Critical Thinking, is not very informative because “critical thinking” means different things to different people. The unofficial name says what the course really is: How to Think. The purpose of this course is to think clearly and reason well.

The course is not “What to Think”. It will not give you a bunch of facts, and the exams will not ask you for facts. It’s not that we don’t care about truth. The ultimate purpose of clear thinking and good reasoning is to find, understand, and communicate truth. But our goal here is not to memorize facts. Our goal is to develop a set of thinking tools that we can use to get true beliefs and avoid false ones.

We’ll always need some true beliefs to begin with. The tools on their own are not enough. If we start with too many false beliefs, the concepts and skills of good reasoning alone will not help us. But if we care about truth, and are willing to learn about the world so that we have some facts to reason with, the tools of critical thinking are very powerful.

These tools include argument analysis, basic logic and probability, and scientific reasoning. Developing them requires hard work. But it’s worth the hard work because they empower us to better understand the world around us, to recognize when we should change our beliefs, to find and criticize other people’s errors, and to clearly organize, express, and defend our thoughts. So get ready to think!

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

  • Recognize and use compound statements: conjunction, disjunction, and conditional.
  • Demonstrate understanding of generalizations and counter-examples.
  • Evaluate simple deductive arguments as either valid or invalid.
  • Reconstruct, and construct, extended arguments.
  • Recognize and quantitatively describe simple correlations.
  • Analyze some major forms of inductive arguments: analogical, statistical, and causal.
  • Solve basic problems of probability, including problems solved with Bayes’ Theorem.
  • Recognize and reconstruct scientific reasoning as it is applied in everyday contexts.
  • Recognize and criticize some common fallacies of confirmation.
PHIL 105 may be applied towards the Certificate in Liberal Arts, the Quantitative Requirement, and the Breadth-Social Sciences Requirement OR the Breadth-Science Requirement (but not both; student can choose which Breadth requirement to satisfy and plan enrollment in other courses accordingly).

Note
: PHIL 105 has replaced PHIL XX1. If you have taken PHIL XX1 in the past and you enroll in PHIL 105, it will be considered a repeat.

Grading

  • Three in-class exams (15% each) 45%
  • Final exam 30%
  • Tutorial work 15%
  • Lecture participation (i.clicker-based) 5%
  • Tutorial participation (effort, contribution) 5%

Materials

MATERIALS + SUPPLIES:

i.clickers

REQUIRED READING:

Course text supplied as PDF

Department Undergraduate Notes:

Thinking of a Philosophy Major or Minor? The Concentration in Law and Philosophy? The Certificate in Ethics? The Philosophy and Methodology of Science Certificate?
Contact the PHIL Advisor at philmgr@sfu.ca   More details on our website: SFU Philosophy

Registrar Notes:

SFU’s Academic Integrity web site http://students.sfu.ca/academicintegrity.html is filled with information on what is meant by academic dishonesty, where you can find resources to help with your studies and the consequences of cheating.  Check out the site for more information and videos that help explain the issues in plain English.

Each student is responsible for his or her conduct as it affects the University community.  Academic dishonesty, in whatever form, is ultimately destructive of the values of the University. Furthermore, it is unfair and discouraging to the majority of students who pursue their studies honestly. Scholarly integrity is required of all members of the University. http://www.sfu.ca/policies/gazette/student/s10-01.html

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: YOUR WORK, YOUR SUCCESS