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.

• have improved general critical thinking skills;

• be skilled in the identification, evaluation and production of reasoning;

• have improved ability to communicate complex arguments.

Four homework sets of up to 12 exercises 45% (due every three weeks), a multiple choice test (not open-book) 20% (held in week 7), a tutorial presentation 3% and a multiple choice final exam (not open-book) 32% (held at the end of semester).

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