Chandra Kumar: chndrakumr@gmail.com or chandrak@yorku.ca

Virtual office hours:

Zoom sessions will be held on a weekly or by-weekly basis, on Thursdays at 11:30 am. Details about this will be provided by email.

The main purpose of this course is to develop our capacities for critical reasoning about moral, political and social issues. ‘Critical reasoning’ refers to the use of logic, evidence and argument in forming and evaluating one’s own (or others’) opinions, in order to arrive at the most justified position possible on a given topic. Critical reasoning can help us to identify arguments (in books, journal articles, 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. The course is intended to enhance your capacity to identify, reconstruct, and evaluate arguments in general, and moral and political arguments in particular.

Technical requirements for taking the course

NOTE 1: This is NOT a MOODLE course and we will NOT be using e-class. Instead, all readings, assignments, tests and lecture notes will be provided by email—to what you listed as your ‘preferred email’ with York U. There will, however, be weekly or biweekly Zoom sessions for discussion of course material. The Zoom sessions will not be lectures (there will be no video/audio lectures) but more like office hours for discussion. The Zoom sessions are not mandatory.

NOTE 2: This class will be ‘asynchronous’. That means there will be no set class times. Instead, you will be sent lecture material and readings on a weekly basis, which you may study at times convenient for yourself.
Zoom@YorkU Best Practices
Zoom@YorkU User Reference Guide
Computing for Students Website
Student Guide to eLearning at York University

To determine Internet connection and speed, there are online tests, such as Speedtest, that can be run.]

All readings will be accessible online or provided to you electronically. Some readings will be accessible through Scott Library e-resources (for which you will need your York Passport ID), some will be accessible online (for which links will be provided), and some will be provided to you electronically by the Course Director. You can, of course, print these out if you wish to have hard copies. We may also watch one or two documentary films on some moral or political topic.

Readings will be announced on a class-to-class basis. This enables the Course Director to customize the curriculum by taking into account the progress of the course, and the interests and needs of the students, in each class.

1. Six short written assignments – due in class (dates TBA): 2.5% each, 15% total.
2. First exam, Oct. 8, 15%.
3. Second exam, Nov. 19, 15%.
4. Third exam, Feb. 11, 15%.
5. Fourth exam, Mar. 25, 15%
6. Short essay, due no later than April 15, 25%.

AGAIN: Since this is not a MOODLE course, announcements, readings, assignments, etc. will be sent via email by the Course Director to the students’ ‘preferred email’ – the email address students gave as their ‘preferred email’ to York University.

Plan for the Course and Grade Breakdown

In this course, we will focus on i) arguments and reasoning in general, and ii) moral, political, and social arguments and reasoning in particular. In the first area, we will go from relatively simple steps for identifying and evaluating arguments to more complex procedures for assessing more complex arguments and theories. In the second area, we will consider various moral and political issues. Readings on these issues—which may include topics such as moral relativism and ethical egoism, religion and morality, terrorism, abortion, gender justice, racism, and poverty—will be provided.

Students will be responsible for submitting six short written assignments during this course (due dates TBA). The assignments will be very short – one or two paragraphs. For each assignment that you do not submit on time, you will lose 2.5% of your final grade. If you submit all six assignments on time, and do each assignment (more or less) properly, this gives you 15% of your final grade. All the assignments will be sent to you via email at least five days prior to the due date. There will also be four exams, each worth 15% of your final grade, and one short essay worth 25% of your final grade. You will submit your exams, essay and short assignments via email (details will be provided), preferably as a word document. The final essay will be due on April 15th, with essay topics provided in due course. So, the grade breakdown will be as set out below under ‘Weighting of the Course’.

To develop our capacity for rational argumentation in relation to morality and moral and political issues.

Additional information will be provided by email as required.