Instructor: Dr.
Jennifer Mundale
Office: Dept. of Philosophy, CNH 411L
Office hours: Tu/Th
Phone: 823-5076; Dept. 823-2273:
E-mail:
jmundale@pegasus.cc.ucf.edu
Webpage: http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~jmundale
Course Description: This course is intended to introduce students to critical thinking, reasoning and analysis, from a broad perspective that includes common biases and barriers, highlights from cognitive studies, some formal elements of logic as well as a review of informal fallacies, and other topics.
Required Texts:
- Coursepack. See "Coursepack Contents", below. All
coursepack items are also on
library reserve.
- Damasio, Antonio. (1995)
Descartes' Error.
- Additional handouts will provided, and
students will
also be directed to online and reserve sources.
Recommended Text:
- Plous, Scott. (1993) The
Psychology of
Judgment and Decision Making,
Course Requirements and Expectations:
Attendance, Preparation, Participation. Students are required to read and prepare the assigned materials, attend class regularly, and participate meaningfully in class discussions. Critical thinking is a subject that requires a sustained and cumulative effort in that each new lesson builds on previous material; missing class, therefore, will quickly put you behind and will make it increasingly difficult to regain lost ground. If you do miss class, you are responsible for any material or announcements presented during that class. Merely visiting the website will not be a sufficient means of making up the material from a missed class, but it will be helpful for you to do so. It will also be helpful for you to obtain copies of the notes for the missed class(es) from a reliable student.
Respect for Others. Everyone
is expected to maintain positive
classroom decorum. Disruptive or discourteous behavior, including
repeated
lateness and/or early departures, will not be tolerated, and will
result in a
lower grade, failure, or outright dismissal from the course. It
is rude
and disruptive to leave a class in progress in order to get a drink,
hit the
vending machine, or take care of non-urgent matters that should have
been
attended to prior to class. Avoid this behavior except in cases
of true
urgency. If you know you will have to leave class early, please
mention
it to me at the start of the class. If you want to be treated
with
respect, treat others with respect.
Course Website. I maintain a website for this class, and
it is linked from my homepage (http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu~jmundale). Students should visit the class website
regularly for announcements, class handouts and supplements, and other
pertinent information.
Policy Regarding Makeups.
Absence from any of the four quizzes will result in a score of zero for
the
missed quiz. If you know ahead of
time that you will have to miss a quiz, I may allow you to take it
early,
provided that 1) you speak with me about your anticipated absence, in
person (not e-mail), at least one week prior
to the
quiz, 2) you have a legitimate reason for missing the quiz, and 3) a
mutually
convenient time can be arranged for you to take the quiz. If you
miss one
of the four quizzes, there will be no makeups,
whether your reason for missing is legitimate or not; however, 1) you
will be
allowed to drop your lowest quiz score, and after your lowest score is
dropped, 2) there
will be one opportunity toward the end of the semester to take a
longer, much
more difficult, cumulative, general makeup quiz. The general makeup
quiz cannot
be dropped, no matter what score you earn on it. The
general makeup can only replace one
missed score. You must first have
my permission to take this general makeup quiz, and you must first meet
with me
to discuss whether or not this is an appropriate option for you.
Furthermore,
the general makeup quiz will be scheduled outside of regular class
hours so as
not to take time away from the rest of the students.
I will say more about this in class, but
you are emphatically forewarned not to rely on this "emergency"
makeup opportunity to improve your grade, since it will be cumulative
and much
more difficult than any of the regular quizzes. If you do wind up
in this
situation, it will only be because you have not yet demonstrated
minimally
adequate knowledge of the course material through your prior quiz
performance
(for whatever reason), hence, the demanding nature of the quiz. The last chance to meet with me to
discuss the general makeup option is April 14 by
Grades.
I will use the plus/minus grading convention (A, A-, B+, B, B-, C+, C,
C-, D+,
D, D-, F)
- 4 Quizzes (22% each, drop lowest quiz): 66%
- Final Exam (cumulative, cannot be dropped): 34%
Quiz/Exam Dates:
1-29: Quiz 1
2-26: Quiz 2
3-30: Quiz 3
4-15: Quiz 4
4-22: Final Exam,
Course Schedule:
Tu
1-6:
Introduction to class, student questionnaire.
Th 1-8: Kirby and Goodpaster, excerpt on
"Personal Barriers" (CP, reading #1).
Tu 1-13: "Personal
Barriers", cont'd.
Th 1-15: Finish "Personal Barriers", Plous,
excerpt on "Context Dependence" (CP, reading #5) .
Tu
1-20:
Plous, excerpt on "Attribution Theory" (CP, reading #2) [please
note
that this is different from the Plous reading above].
Th 1-22: Försterling, excerpt on "Topics of
Attribution Research" (CP, reading #3).
Tu
1-27:
Beck, excerpt from Cognitive Therapy of Depression (CP,
reading #4),
Review.
Th 1-29: Quiz 1
Tu 2-3: Informal
Fallacies
(online).
Th 2-5: Informal Fallacies - exercises and
examples.
Tu
2-10:
Categorical propositions and syllogisms – handout.
Th 2-12: Categorical syllogisms and Venn
diagrams -
handout.
Tu
2-17:
Venn Diagrams: seeing validity - handout.
Th 2-19: Venn Diagrams,
cont'd. (distribution rules, if time) - handout.
Tu
2-24:
Review and finish Categorical Syllogisms.
Th 2-26: Quiz 2.
Note: Withdrawal deadline is Feb. 27.
Tu
3-2:
Basic Propositional Logic: connectives and their truth tables (online)
Th 3-4: Basic argument forms: validity
again, and
soundness (online)
Tu
3-9:
Spring Break
Th 3-11: Spring Break
Tu 3-16: Basic
argument forms,
cont'd. (online).
Th 3-18: Two Formal Fallacies (online),
Hempel (CP
reading #7) .
Tu
3-23:
finish Hempel, begin Goldman, "Epistemology", (CP reading #6, obtain
from library reserve).
Th 3-25: finish Goldman, "Epistemology", Review.
Tu
3-30: Quiz
3
Th 4-1: Damasio,
Descartes'
Error, Introduction, and Chs. 1, 2, 3
(pp.
xi-xix and pp. 3-51).
Tu
4-6: Damasio, Descartes'
Th 4-8: TBA
Tu
4-13*:
Damasio, Descartes' Error,
Ch. 9
(pp. 205-222), Ch. 11 (pp. 245-252)
Th 4-15: Quiz 4 (only on Damasio, Descartes' Error), review for
final exam
*Note: Wed., 4-14, by
Final Exam: Th
4-22,
Coursepack Contents for Critical Thinking,
PHI 2101
If you do not wish to buy the coursepack, all of these articles are on reserve in the library.
1) Kirby, G.R. and Goodpaster,
J.R.,
(2002) "Personal Barriers" (Ch. 2), in Thinking, 3rd
edition.
2) Plous, Scott. (1993), excerpt from The
Psychology of
Judgment and Decision Making,
3) Försterling, Friedrich. (2001) "The Topics of
Attribution Research", (
4) Beck, A. T., Rush, J. A., Shaw, B. F., Emery,
G., (1979),
Cognitive Therapy of Depression,
5) Plous, Scott. (1993), excerpt from The
Psychology of
Judgment and Decision Making,
6) Goldman, A. I. (1993) "Epistemology" (Ch.
1), in Philosophical Applications of Cognitive Science,
Boulder, CO:
Westview Press, pp. 1-32.
Note: This item was
removed from the coursepack at the last minute
because of copyright barriers. You
will find it on reserve at the library.
7) Hempel, Carl. (1966), excerpt from Philosophy
of
Natural Science,