PHIL 150 - Critical Thinking

• Accurately summarize an argument contained in a prose passage, identifying its thesis, premises, and assumptions.
• State the distinction between the truth of an argument’s premises and the validity and strength of its reasoning; and display awareness of this distinction in one’s writing.
• Identify whether a given argument is deductive or inductive, and accordingly evaluate it for either validity or soundness or for strength and cogency; and recognize whether it commits any common argumentative fallacies.
• Identify the logical form (propositional or categorical) of English statements and arguments; be able to exhibit that form by symbolization; and be able to use that form to determine the validity of arguments.
• Display, in one’s writing, an awareness of one’s assumptions, and a willingness to question them; and hence be able to engage seriously and respectfully with others who disagree with those assumptions.
• Take a reasoned position on a complex question while acknowledging that one’s position might be incorrect - but still avoid collapse into a default relativism on which “it’s all a matter of opinion”.