PHIL 105.001 – How to Reason and Argue: An Introduction to Critical Thinking

Instructor: Felix Benzant. This course meets MWF 10:10 – 11:00 a.m. in MA 307.

This course is primarily designed to teach you how to think. Perhaps more than any other class you will ever take, this introduction to reason and argumentation will help you make sense of every other subject or topic you choose to study. It provides the essential tools for higher reasoning that will guide you through your time in college and beyond. You will learn how to identify, construct, and evaluate arguments, as well as how to communicate them well. For that, we will look into the very nature of arguments: breaking them down into premises and conclusion, identifying their kinds, evaluating the quality of evidence, and pinpointing logical fallacies. Essentially, you will learn why good arguments are good, and bad arguments bad. Topics will include argument reconstruction, induction and deduction, informal logic, fallacies, introductory formal logic, and probabilistic reasoning. The course will fit the needs of anyone who aspire to improve their critical thinking skills.