161-104 Critical Thinking: The Art of Reasoning

Formerly available as 161-003. Students who have completed 161-003 are not eligible to enrol in this subject.

This subject covers the fundamental principles of reasoning and argument in ordinary language. These include distinguishing reasoning from other forms of persuasion; uses and abuses of language in the expression of ideas; extracting arguments from texts; clarifying the internal structure of arguments; evaluating the acceptability of premises; distinguishing kinds of reasoning (statistical, causal, analogical, ethical, explanatory etc.); common patterns of error in reasoning; and the structure of debate. By the end of the subject students should have a greater ability to evaluate reasoning, to support their own positions, and to think their way through difficult issues. These skills should substantially enhance students' performance in subsequent subjects in the Philosophy Department and elsewhere.

Written work totalling 4000 words. An examination may be substituted for part of the written work.

Reason!Able software, provided by the University of Melbourne Reason! Online Learning Materials (further information available on webraft website).