AP/MODR1730 6.0 I: Reasoning About Social Issues
Offered by: MODR
Session
Summer 2020
Term
SU
Format
ONLN (Fully Online)
Instructor
Calendar Description / Prerequisite / Co-Requisite
This is a skills-based course focusing on critical thinking, research-based writing, and qualitative and quantitative analysis. The particular focus will be on different positions taken within the social sciences on issues such as abortion, euthanasia, pornography, immigration etc. Typical examples are to be analyzed. Course credit exclusions: AP/MODR 1760 6.00, AP/MODR 1770 6.00.
Course Start Up
Course Websites hosted on York's "eClass" are accessible to students during the first week of the term. It takes two business days from the time of your enrolment to access your course website. Course materials begin to be released on the course website during the first week. To log in to your eClass course visit the York U eClass Portal and login with your Student Passport York Account. If you are creating and participating in Zoom meetings you may also go directly to the York U Zoom Portal.
For further course Start Up details, review the Getting Started webpage.
For IT support, students may contact University Information Technology Client Services via askit@yorku.ca or (416) 736-5800. Please also visit UIT Student Services or the Getting Help - UIT webpages.
Jason Robinson
jasonro@yorku.ca
| This course emphasizes critical reasoning skills. These critical-rational skills are then applied to texts and issues on a variety of topics and in a variety of fields, with the goal of gaining clarity of insight as well as formulating our own “reasoned” positions. This course is designed to encourage student application of critical-rational thinking through interaction with key social issues. We shall be taking an inter- and multi-disciplinary approach that draws on numerous disciplinary insights, theories, methods, and forms of research. This course introduces students to: (1) the rules and the application of those rules that govern critical thinking and (2) to social reasoning about major issues presented in the media, i.e., “hot topics” of the day, e.g., euthanasia, war, terrorism, animal rights, environmentalism.
Part of thinking critically about social issues is understanding key ideas found across the Human, Social, and Natural Sciences, such as qualitative and quantitative research, the nature of cause and effect, and, more generally, different views of “reason.” To that end we will look at (a) the nature and role of probabilistic and statistical thinking as a specific form of social reasoning, (b) how to evaluate statistical arguments and quantitative data, (c) how to identify different types of probability (including related cause and effect reasoning), and (d) ways in which to develop a sense of the unique role of applied (social/scientific) reasoning in our personal lives. As you no doubt already know, life is full of many dilemmas—questions about how to act and think—that you must wrestle with on a daily basis. Are you able to effectively navigate your way through them? Do you have basic critical thinking skills needed to sort good arguments from bad arguments? Many people live life without ever asking themselves why they believe what they believe or how they might justify their actions. Thinking rationally about oneself and the world is not easy and yet it is incredibly important. Thinking clearly and critically does not happen by accident for most of us, it takes time and training. One of our primary goals is to identify and then understand the nature and multiple expressions of reasoning, especially as that reasoning applies to everyday life and major social (moral) issues.
|
Thinking Clearly: A Guide to Critical Reasoning. Jill LeBlanc. New York: W. W. Norton, 1998.
Contemporary Moral Arguments: Readings in Ethical Issues. Lewis Vaughn. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199030439
| Assignments | Weight |
| 4 Quizzes | 50% of final grade Quiz 1 and Quiz 2 are worth 10% each Quiz 3 and Quiz 4 are worth 15% each |
| 2 Exams | 30% of final grade
(each is worth 15%) |
| Critical Analysis and Research Paper | 20% of final grade |
Full Online
The ultimate objective of this course is practical—to provide students the opportunity to develop useful tools for reasoning in any context, especially social contexts. To that end, students will be shown important critical reading, writing, thinking, and problem solving skills needed to successfully navigate different knowledge claims. In addition to critical reading, thinking, and writing skills, there will be an emphasis on personal development, including the creation of competencies in fields/areas of research and social/moral life that are currently unfamiliar—thereby encouraging the ability to rationally consider others’ views on major social issues as well as to challenge one’s own.
- Academic Accommodation for Students with Disabilities
- Alternate Exam and Test Scheduling
- Grading Scheme and Feedback Policy
The Senate Grading Scheme and Feedback Policy stipulates that (a) the grading scheme (i.e. kinds and weights of assignments, essays, exams, etc.) be announced, and be available in writing, within the first two weeks of class, and that, (b) under normal circumstances, graded feedback worth at least 15% of the final grade for Fall, Winter or Summer Term, and 30% for ‘full year’ courses offered in the Fall/Winter Term be received by students in all courses prior to the final withdrawal date from a course without receiving a grade (see the policy for exceptions to this aspect of the policy - http://www.yorku.ca/secretariat/legislation/senate/gradfeed.htm
“Final course grades may be adjusted to conform to Program or Faculty grades distribution profiles.”
If Term Test will be held outside of regularly scheduled class time, include announcement of day, date and time here (e.g., Saturday, October 28, 2006, 10 am to 11:30, room TBA).
"20 % Rule"
No examination or test worth more than 20% of the final grade will be given during the last two weeks of classes in a term, with the exception of classes which regularly meet Friday evenings or on the weekend (Saturday and/or Sunday at any time). (Approved by Senate, November 28, 1996)
- Academic Honesty
- Student Rights and Responsibilities
- Religious Observance
- Grading Scheme and Feedback
- 20% Rule
No examinations or tests collectively worth more than 20% of the final grade in a course will be given during the final 14 calendar days of classes in a term. The exceptions to the rule are classes which regularly meet Friday evenings or on Saturday and/or Sunday at any time, and courses offered in the compressed summer terms. - Academic Accommodation for Students with Disabilities
