Chandra Kumar
chandrak@yorku.ca
Office Location: S401 Ross Building
Office Phone Number: (416) - 736 - 2100 Ext. 66449
Office Hour: Tuesday 1:00pm - 3:00pm

This course is aimed at developing our capacities for critical reasoning. There are at least two ways of understanding the notion of 'critical reasoning'. First, 'critical reasoning' refers to the use of logic, evidence, and argument in forming and evaluating arguments and opinions. Critical reasoning, in this sense, helps us to identify arguments (in books, newspapers, films, literature, on television, radio, the internet, and so on), to detect fallacies and other weaknesses in those arguments, and to understand how those arguments may be rationally strengthened and improved – if they can be. Second, 'critical reasoning' refers to the use of our rational capacities to identify and to evaluate various modes of persuasion (not only arguments) that serve to reinforce and rationalize ideological assumptions and views of the world that are often unquestioned or uncritically accepted.

Critical reasoning in this second sense, though it is related to, and draws upon, critical reasoning in the first sense, does something more. In this second sense of 'critical reasoning', the aim is to defend ourselves, not only against bad arguments in general, but against bad political, ideological, and propagandistic arguments in particular. In the first sense of 'critical reasoning', the kind that introductory textbooks usually focus on, we are concerned with arguing well in general. In the second sense, we focus on arguing well on political, social and moral questions in particular: on humanly important matters that are relevant to how we live our lives and to what kind of society we wish to strive for and defend.

This will be a course in critical reasoning in both senses. We want to develop our capacities for rational argument in general, and for rational self-defence against ideological and political propaganda (which often occurs in advertising as well as directly political rhetoric) in particular. Critical reasoning in the first sense does not require much knowledge of politics, history, and society. Critical reasoning in the second sense is simply impossible without some such knowledge of the 'real world'. Critical reasoning in both senses requires a capacity for reading comprehension, and for clear writing. The aim of this course is to improve all of these capacities.

Randal Marlin, Propaganda and the Ethics of Persuasion 2nd ed. (Broadview Press, 2013).

NOTE: We will NOT be using MOODLE for this course. Additional readings will be emailed to students – using your listed preferred email address. If you want to email me, use either my gmail address or york address, listed above.

1. Short written assignments. Dates (Jan.15 and 22; Feb.5 and 12; Mar.4 and 11): 15%
2. First in-class exam (Jan. 29): 20%
3. Second in-class exam (Feb. 26): 20%
4. Third in-class exam (Mar. 23): 20 %
5. Essay (4-6 pages typed, double-spaced, due no later than April 10): 25%

Our text deals primarily (but not only) with 'critical reasoning' in the second sense specified above. The book covers many topics, including the history of propaganda, techniques for analyzing propaganda, the relationship between ethics and propaganda, issues of free speech and expression, propaganda in advertising and the public relations industry, and the internet as a vehicle for both democracy and propaganda. You are not expected to read the entire book. I will indicate which parts of the book will be required for the exams and essays.

You are expected to read the items that will be sent to you via email, unless I indicate that an item is optional. I will base my lectures both on the text and on other materials - which will include video clips from the internet, readings, passages, or exercises posted to your ‘preferred’ email address, and one or two movies or documentaries (TBA) which we will view in class.

The text is not easy, but it is worth struggling through – though, again, we will not cover all of it. I will not make the exams and assignments as difficult as the text. It is a first year course, after all. In lectures, I will try to simplify the basic points you are expected to know for exams and assignments, and I will provide guidance for writing exams and short written assignments. So do not be intimidated by the text if you find it hard or overwhelming. I will also lecture on materials that will be sent to you via email. These materials, for the most part, will focus on improving your argument skills in general – that is, on 'critical reasoning' in the first sense, described above in the 'course description'. For our purposes, these materials are just as important, if not more so, than the text. You will be tested on them as well as on the text itself. To do well in this course, it is advisable to attend lectures. In the past, students who have regularly attended lectures have generally achieved higher grades for the course.

The plan is not for me to lecture for three hours. We will discuss examples of propaganda and political argument throughout, and we will go over exercises as well. (Discussion is also a vehicle for developing our rational critical capacities.) Throughout the course, I will post short writing assignments (one or two paragraphs) or an exercise through email, which you will submit during class. I do not accept email submissions. There will be six such assignments. These short assignments will be worth 15 percent of your final grade. If you do all of them, you get the full 15 percent – provided you made an effort to do them properly. For each assignment that you do not submit on time, you will lose 2.5 percent. If you do not submit any of these, you will lose the full 15%. If you submit an assignment but clearly made no effort to do it properly, or didn’t really address what you were being asked, you will lose part marks. The purpose of these exercises is to keep you active and to give you continual feedback, which might help you on the exams and essay assignments.