Catalog Course Search Details

 Department:    PHIL&

 Course #:    106

 Credits:    5

 Variable:     No

 IUs:    5

 CIP:    380101

 EPC:    n/a

 REV:    2018

 Course Description  

Introduces the study of reasoning, including the ability to recognize, analyze, criticize and construct the main types of argument and proof.

 Prerequisite  

Prerequisite: Appropriate placement or grade of 2.0 or higher in ENGL 099.

Contact Hours (based on 11 week quarter)

Lecture: 55

Lab: 0

Other: 0

Systems: 0

Clinical: 0

Intent: Distribution Requirement(s) Status:  

Academic Humanities  

Equivalencies At Other Institutions

Learning Outcomes

After completing this course, the student will be able to:

1. understand the dialectical character of genuinely fruitful argumentation
2. parse arguments into their components: claims, grounds, warrants, and backing
3. evaluate the strength of arguments in terms of qualifications, rebuttals and exceptions
4. recognize the need for and ways to acquire as much relevant information as possible before making any final argumentative assessments.
5. assess their own pre-critical orientation
6. recognize and address fallacies involving faulty grounds
7. recognize and address fallacies involving faulty warrants
8. translate natural language into standard form.
9. translate natural language into symbolic language
10. recognize and use logical inferences, such as modus ponens and modus tollens, logical fallacies, and recognize formal soundness and validity

General Education Learning Values & Outcomes

Revised August 2008 and affects outlines for 2008 year 1 and later.

0. Application and Integration

Definition: Applying information from one or more disciplines and/or field experiences in new contexts (Outcome 0.1); developing integrated approaches or responses to personal, academic, professional, and social issues (Outcomes 0.2-0.5).

Outcomes: Students will be able to . . .
0.3 Identify and evaluate the relationships among different perspectives within a field of study and among different fields of study.

1. Information Literacy

Definition: Recognizing when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information.

Outcomes: Students will be able to . . .
1.1 Determine the extent of information needed.
1.2 Access the needed information effectively, efficiently, ethically, and legally.
1.3 Evaluate information and its sources critically.

2. Critical Thinking

Definition: The ability to think critically about the nature of knowledge within a discipline and about the ways in which that knowledge is constructed and validated and to be sensitive to the ways these processes often vary among disciplines.

Outcomes: Students will be able to . . .
2.1 Identify and express concepts, terms, and facts related to a specific discipline.
2.2 Analyze issues and develop questions within a discipline.
2.3 Identify, interpret, and evaluate pertinent data and previous experience to reach conclusions.

3. Communication

Definition: Understanding and producing effective written, spoken, visual, and non-verbal communication.

Outcomes: Students will be able to . . .
3.1 Recognize, read, and comprehend academic and/or professional writing.

4. Community & Cultural Diversity

Definition: Recognizing the value of human communities and cultures from multiple perspectives through a critical understanding of their similarities and differences.

Outcomes: Students will be able to . . .
4.2 Understand, value and respect human differences and commonalities as they relate to issues of race, social class, gender, sexual orientation, disabilities and culture.

8. Mathematical Reasoning

Definition: Understanding and applying concepts of mathematics and logical reasoning in a variety of contexts, both academic and non-academic.

Outcomes: Students will be able to . . .
8.2 Correctly apply logical reasoning and mathematical principles to solve problems.
8.3 Interpret information and reasoning expressed mathematically (for example in spreadsheets, diagrams, charts, formulas, etc.).

Course Contents

1. Introduction to logic and the environment of argumentation
2. Claims and how to evaluate claims
3. Grounds, inductive and deductive modes of reasoning
4. Warrants and Rules
5. Backing and its relationship to warrants
6. Qualified claims, tentative discoveries, Rebuttals and Exceptions
7. Presumtions,quandries, relevance and context in argumentation
8. Fallacies involving faulty grounds
9. Fallacies involving faulty warrants
10. An introduction to formal logic: translations from natural language to standard form and standard form to symbolic form