PHIL 102: LOGIC and CRITICAL THINKING Course Outline We Go Though These Topics Sequentially, but You Need to Come to Class to K

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PHIL 102: LOGIC AND CRITICAL THINKING Course Outline We go though these topics sequentially, but you need to come to class to know where we are. Readings are from Moore and Parker, Critical Thinking, 10th edition. Note: reading assignments include boxes, but do not include exercises. We will be doing numerous exercises in class. 1. Basic concepts: critical thinking, reasoning, logic, logic and language, issues, claims, arguments, explanations, premises, conclusions, fact and opinion. Read Chapter 1. 2. Understanding two kinds of reasoning: Deductive reasoning (the logic of demonstration), and Inductive reasoning (the logic of support). Identifying unstated assumptions. Read Chapter 2. 3. Deductive Reasoning: Categorical logic. Assessing categorical syllogisms and one-premise arguments for validity. Categorical Reasoning in natural languages. Formal Fallacies. Read Chapter 8. 4. Deductive Reasoning continued: Sentential deductive reasoning: Common valid and invalid argument forms. Necessary and sufficient conditions. Sentential Reasoning in natural languages. Formal Fallacies. Read Chapter 9, pages 295-317. 5. Inductive Reasoning: Statistical syllogisms, generalizations, reasoning from analogies. Fallacies. Read Chapter 10. 6. Inductive Reasoning continued: Evaluating arguments that lead to a cause- and-effect conclusion. Fallacies. Read Chapter 11. 7. Assessing credibility of claims; assessing credibility of sources. When can a report of a miracle be believed? Hume's principle. Read Chapter 4. 8. Logic and Language: Vagueness and Ambiguity in natural language. Fallacies of ambiguity: Equivocation, Composition, and Division. Read Chapter 3. 9. Logic and Language: Rhetoric vs logic; Persuasion vs Argument. Common Rhetorical Devices. Read Chapter 5. 10. Logic and Language: Common Informal Fallacies. Read Chapters 6 and 7. .

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Logical Fallacies Moorpark College Writing Center
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