Professor Linda Carozza

Course Instructor Contact: Lcarozza@yorku.ca

Virtual office hours: Zoom or the eClass Chat function will be used for virtual office hours. Further information will be made available in the full syllabus and on eClass

Times and locations: This is an online course - all lectures, tasks, assignments, and meetings will be held online through the course eClass site. To be as accessible as possible, this course does not require you to log on and complete tasks and assignments and lectures at specific times. As it is an ASYNCHRONOUS course - you can choose when to log on to keep up with weekly material. You must log on frequently to keep up with this accelerated course.

The course will go live on Monday May 10. Log in to e-Class for the detailed syllabus, schedule, etc). Weekly content will be made available on e-Class Wednesday afternoons (May 12, May 19, May 26, June 2, June 9, June 16).

Webinars (60 minutes) will be facilitated on Mondays at 2:30 p.m. (May 17, May 31, June 7, June 14, June 21). All assignment deadlines fall on Wednesdays. Due by noon. Please note that there will be no in-person interactions or activities on campus.

Expanded Course Description:

Critical reasoning is an important skill that can be transferred to your other courses and life’s work. It enables you to avoid being duped, to see the heart of arguments and positions, to understand how your biases, and the biases of others, influence argumentation, and to be able to evaluate competing views to determine which is strongest. With these skills in mind, we spend the majority of time in this course examining the nature and structure of arguments, how they are composed, and how they can be analyzed. We accumulate several “tools” that can equip you to engage in arguments - whether with your family, co- workers, sales people, etc.

In addition to being a skill in analysis and comprehension, a good arguer also understands that argumentation is a human interactive process that involves people, their feelings, goals, belief systems, values, egos, and personalities. We examine these aspects of argumentation too, with reference to recent work in Argumentation Theory.

Being a strong critical thinker is a main ingredient in becoming a “competent layperson” - an individual who has the confidence to engage in discussions about issues that s/he may not have expertise but has the skills to engage in a fruitful discussion.

Technical requirements for taking the course: A higher internet speed is important to stream lecture material. In order to fully participate in this course students should have access to electronic devices that have video and microphone access. There will be weekly 60-minute webinars on Mondays at 2:30 p.m. EST, as well as virtual office hours, using Zoom.

Here are some useful links for student computing information, resources and help:

Student Guide to Moodle

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.]

There is one required text in the course. All other material will be made available (at no cost) on e-Class.

Concise Guide to Critical Thinking

Lewis Vaughn

2018

Oxford University Press

978-0-19-069289-6

Participation – 10%

Quizzes – 30%

Argumentative Assignment – 30%

Critical Essay – 30%

• The course will go live on Monday May 10. Log in to e-Class for the syllabus, schedule, etc).
• Weekly content will be made available on e-Class Wednesday afternoons (May 12, May 19, May 26, June 2, June 9, June 16).
• Webinars (60 minutes) will be facilitated on Mondays at 2:30 p.m. (May 17, May 31, June 7, June 14, June 21).
• All assignment deadlines fall on Wednesdays. Due by noon.

Please note that there will be no in-person interactions or activities on campus.

• Understand and diagram simple and complex arguments by breaking them down into conclusion-premise form
• Supplement arguments by revealing underlying assumptions in consideration with relevant contexts
• Recognize and respond to obstacles to cogent thinking and reasoning
• Evaluate the strength of arguments
• Determine argument schemes and/or fallacies
• Deliver a strong argument
• Write critically and argumentatively