Course Syllabus
Athabasca University
Philosophy (PHIL) 252
Critical Thinking (Revision 6)
Revision 6 closed, replaced by current version.
View previous syllabus
Delivery mode: Individualized study or grouped study.
Credits: 3 - Humanities
Prerequisite: None.
Centre: Centre for Global and Social Analysis
PHIL 252 has a Challenge for Credit option.
Overview
PHIL 252 is designed to improve a student's ability to analyse and evaluate the kinds of arguments and assertions commonly met with in everyday life. The course also helps students improve their own arguments and presentations by showing them how to draw sound conclusions from available evidence and how to construct well-reasoned cases to support these conclusions.
Although the course focuses on the informal logic of everyday language, it includes some training in elementary formal logic. A student is taught how to apply fundamental rules and standards of logical reasoning to the sorts of arguments encountered in newspapers, magazines and other media, and university-level textbooks in most fields.
Outline
Unit 1: Introduction: The Language of Argumentation
Unit 2: Analysing Arguments: Content and Structure
Unit 3: Evaluating Arguments: Validity, Soundness, and Problems of Interpretation
Unit 4: Syllogistic Reasoning
Unit 5: Common Fallacies of Reasoning
Unit 6: Nondeductive Arguments
Unit 7: The Use and Misuse of Statistics
Unit 8: Explanations and Empirical Theories
Unit 9: Conceptual Theories and Definitions
Unit 10: Writing a Short Critical Essay
Evaluation
To receive credit for PHIL 252, you must submit every piece of written work and achieve a course composite grade of at least “D” (50 percent). The weighting of the composite grade is as follows:
| Tutor-marked Exercise | Mid-term Test | Short Critical Essays | Final Exam | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15% | 20% | 25% | 40% | 100% |
To learn more about assignments and examinations, please refer to Athabasca University's online Calendar.
Course Materials
Textbooks
Cederblom, Jerry, and David W. Paulsen. Critical Reasoning: Understanding and Criticizing Arguments and Theories. 6th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2006.
Huff, Darrell. How to Lie With Statistics. New York: Norton, 1954.
Other Materials
The course materials includes two study guides and a student manual.