Phil 141: Critical
Thinking
Fall 2023
Instructor:
Ted Parent, ted.parent@nu.edu.kz
Syllabus
Schedule of Readings
WEEK 1: Introduction
Buddha, the
Kalama Sutta
Graham, What
You Can't Say
Handout: Pessimism
about Argument
Handout: Making Distinctions
Video: Muller, The
Science of Thinking
WEEK 2: Psychological Obstacles
Video: Shepherd, 3
Kinds of Bias that Shape your Worldview
Vaughn, Reasons
for Doubt
Handout: Cognitive
Biases
Videos: Laurie
Santos on Cognitive Biases
Huemer,
Why People are
Irrational about Politics
Handout: What
is the Ideal Setting for Inquiry?
Handout: S.L.O.W. Thinking Tool
Handout: Suspending Judgment
Handout: A Curious Way to Avoid Bias
Optional: Handout: Defense
Mechanisms
Optional: Kenyon & Beaulac, Critical Thinking Education
and Debiasing
WEEK 3: The Five Types of Argument
Handout: Five Types
of Argument
Handout: Premise
and Conclusion Indicators
Handout: Criticizing the Different Types of
Argument
Optional: Handout: Decision Theory
Primer
WEEK 4: Symbolization
Bergmann et al., excerpts from ch. 2 of The
Logic Book, 6th edition.
Video: Crash
Course in Formal Logic: Propositional Logic
Handout: Necessary
versus Sufficient Conditions
WEEK 5: Argument Forms
Howard-Snyder et al., The Power of
Logic, chapter
1 (excerpts)
Handout: Famous Forms
Handout: Formal
Fallacies
WEEK 6: Real-World Arguments
Vaughn, Diagramming Arguments
Vaughn, Assessing Longer Arguments
Optional: Handout:
Reconstructing
Arguments
WEEK 7: Informal Fallacies
Handout: Informal Fallacies: Pseudo-Deductions
Handout: Fallacies
of Unjustified Premises
Handout: Fallacies in 12 Angry Men
Video:
Julianne Chung, Ad
Hominem
Video: Wu, Straw
Man Argument
WEEK 8: Rhetoric and Emotion
Handout:
Devious Rhetoric
Handout: The Appeal to Emotion
Handout: Are Emotions
Relevant?
Optional:
Video: Ruth Chang's TED
talk on Hard Choices
Optional:
Video: Cassidy, Developing
Wisdom
Earp, Mental
Shortcuts
WEEK 9: Appeals to Authority
Vaughn, Experts and Evidence
Handout: Website Credibility Checklist
Handout: Don't Just Leave
Science to Scientists
Optional:
Plato, Euthyphro (excerpt)
WEEK 11: Scientific Methods
Video: Cooke, The
Scientific Method is Crap
Handout: What Makes
for a Good Scientific Theory?
Forseman et al., excerpts from ch. 9 of The
Critical Thinking Toolkit
Forseman et al., more excerpts from ch. 9
Handout: The
Bradford Hill Criteria
Optional:
Susan Haack, Correlation and
Causation: The Bradford Hill Criteria
Optional: Gorski
& Novella, Clinical Trials of Integrative
Medicine
WEEK 12: Probability and Science
Forseman et al.,
excerpts
from ch. 6 of The Critical Thinking Toolkit
Handout: Intro to
Probability
Handout: Significance Testing
Optional: Handout:
What
is a Probability Anyway?
Optional: Video:
Muller, How
We're Fooled by Statistics
WEEK 13: Thinking about Science
Video:
The
Limits of Science
Hanson, Seeing and Seeing As (excerpts)
Quine, Two Dogmas of Empiricism (excerpt)
Handout: The Problem of Induction
Handout: Remarks on Scientism
WEEK 14-15: Dialectical Method
Hume, Of Miracles (excerpts)
Handout:
Argument
Diagram for Hume's "Of Miracles"
Handout: How to Address Objections
Rosenberg, excerpts
from chs. 5 and 6 of The Practice of Philosophy
Optional:
Plato, In Praise of Dialectic
Dennett, excerpts
from ch. 2 of Intuition
Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking
Handout: Writing
Advice
FOR FURTHER STUDY
Forseman et al., Meta-Narratives
Baggini &
Fosl, Foucaultian Critique of
Power
Forseman et al., more excerpts from ch. 10
of The Critical Thinking Toolkit
Herman & Chomsky, Preface
to Manufacturing Consent
Chomsky, excerpts from the Afterward
of Failed States
Handout: Coping with
Ecological Despair
Updated: 10 November 2023