Josh Paul

moufawadpaul@gmail.com

Office Location:  S441 Ross Building

Phone Number:  (416) 736-2100 Ext. 77592

Office Hours:  Monday & Wednesday 2:30 – 3:30 and by appointment

In this course we will learn tools of critical thinking with an emphasis on persuasion and how we are persuaded, according to advertising and political ideology, in everyday life. The first half of the course will concern critical thinking and ways in which good arguments might or might not be persuading. The tools learned in the first half will be applied to the second half where we consider techniques of marketing/advertising persuasion (expanding on discussions in the first half) and the ways in persuasion functions politically through propaganda and dominant ideology.

The Power of Critical Thinking (5^th Edition)

Other readings available on the Moodle site.

Class/Homework: 20%

Midterm test: 25%

Writing Assignment: 30%

Final Exam: 25%

First half of the course will be focused on the discipline of critical thinking as we work our way through the course text. Various homework assignments will be designed to prepare students for the mid-term. Following the mid-term, the second half of the course will focus on applying the skills learned in the first term to the material of the second term. There will be a major writing assignment and a final.

To be familiar with the basics of critical thinking, including deductive and inductive reasoning. To understand that persuasion and good reasoning are not always the same. To understand the way different techniques of persuasion function in our everyday life.