WHAT PHILOSOPHY IS: Philosophy is an attempt to come to a systematic understanding of the objective world through the use of reason. The philosophical approach assumes a commitment to follow the truth wherever it leads, however uncomfortable it may make us and in spite of what we may wish to be true. It strives for logical consistency and agreement with the empirical evidence. Philosophy is about asking questions, especially questions no one else wants to ask. Philosophy even questions the unquestionable, including things considered to be "common sense," such as the existence of an external world of matter, free will, God, the soul, an afterlife or the existence of universal, objective moral values (or perhaps the unquestionable certainty of our age is the dogma that morality is culturally relative or completely subjective). Philosophy uses conceptual analysis as its primary tool. Properly analyzing concepts requires the rigorous definition of terms, so the precise use of language is very important to philosophers, or at least to the good ones. This goes all the way back to Socrates. Fuzzy language evinces fuzzy thinking. Because this is a course in applied reasoning, our approach will be mainly topical, practical and contemporary, though I may draw on some historical works.

WHAT PHILOSOPHY IS NOT: Philosophy is not about exploring your "personal beliefs." Nor is it about your feelings (please avoid the phrase "I feel" when expressing your point of view in class, as hopefully what you have to say is based on more than your subjective emotional state). Philosophy is not about your identity, your sex, your gender, your sexual orientation, your culture or your "race." It's not about your faith or "how you were raised." Please avoid referring to these things in class or online forums unless they have some direct bearing on the issue at hand. Although there is an historical tradition associated with philosophy, it is not primarily about history, and even though understanding their historical or cultural context may help us understand the ideas of particular philosophers, it is the ideas themselves with which philosophy is concerned.

COURSE DESCRIPTION:  This course is aimed at developing practical reasoning skills. Students will learn to analyze and evaluate arguments, detect fallacies, distinguish science from pseudo-science, recognize media bias, and better understand methods of deception employed by advertisers, political organizations and others. A central goal of this course is to develop an attitude of fair-mindedness and intellectual honesty while learning to avoid the pitfalls of defensiveness and rationalization.

COURSE OBJECTIVES: The objectives are this course are for students to (1) be able to identify, analyze and evaluate arguments, including being able to recognize hidden assumptions and implied conclusions (2) be able to identify various kinds of valid and strong arguments and to distinguish them from formal and informal fallacies (3) develop an awareness of various kinds of psychological bias that can cloud clear thinking and to develop effective strategies for overcoming it (4) develop an awareness of social, cultural and institutional bias and to develop strategies for correcting for its influence (5) be able to guard against non-rational means of persuasion such as slick sales techniques, rhetoric and propaganda (6) be able to apply critical thinking skills in different contexts, e.g. advertising, science, religion, ethics, politics (7) be able to distinguish between unreliable personal experiences or anecdotal evidence and good empirical evidence (8) understand and appreciate the value of rationality and objectivity.

ATTENDANCE (MW 2-3:50 STUDENTS ONLY): Attendance is worth 10% or one letter grade. Moreover, it will be difficult to do well on exams without regular attendance. There will also be some material presented in class which will be tested on but which is not in the readings and videos provided in Moodle. There will be a sign-in sheet each class; make sure to sign it. There will be no class Monday, November 12 (Veterans Day observance).

AUDIO PODCASTS (ONLINE STUDENTS ONLY): Two hours of fresh lecture/discussion are uploaded to the Audio Podcasts Forum in the top section of Moodle each Monday and Wednesday evening. This content is recorded during the MW 2-3:50 classroom section and is required listening for online students. These audio podcasts will will help explain the reading and course concepts. Not listening to these recordings would be the equivalent of not going to a face to face class and attempting to pass by simply reading the textbook. There will also be some material presented in these recordings which will be tested on but which is not in the readings and videos provided in Moodle. You can stream these recordings from within Moodle or download them to your computer or phone and listen to them while doing routine household chores, exercising, commuting and so on.

FORUM POSTS (ONLINE STUDENTS ONLY): The purpose of the forum assignment is to allow you the opportunity to interpret, evaluate and apply what you have learned, and to discuss the merits and implications of class concepts and theories with your classmates. Every Monday a new forum prompt will be posted. To receive credit, you must make one reply of 100 to 300 words that substantially and directly addresses the prompt and displays a familiarity with the reading, i.e. your post must be distinguishable from someone who hasn't done any of the reading, looks at the prompt and "gives their opinion." Avoid all titles and headers and signatures. Moodle displays you name, the date, the topic and the forum week; duplicating this information clutters up the forum. Write in block format with no indenting, spacing between paragraphs, and use the standard font. If you're pasting from Google docs, Microsoft Word or similar programs, save as plain text first. After you've posted, make your post's formatting looks OK, that the font matches everyone else's and that are no extra spaces above or below the text (a common problem with copying and pasting). See the Student Help Desk for help using Moodle forums.

Read the prompt carefully before answering. Make sure you are actually answering the question since off-topic posts will not receive credit. You should carefully revise and proofread your post for typos, awkward language, conceptual vagueness and inconsistency. Posts making unsupported or contradictory claims will not receive credit. Your post should not read like a stream of consciousness of you trying to figure things out "on the fly." If it helps you to write something like that first, go ahead, but then revise it into something clear, methodical and coherent. Avoid meaningless, introductory throw-away comments or restating the question; get straight to the point.

Plagiarism, which includes but is not limited to copying and pasting from websites, will result a penalty of one letter grade on the first offense (the equivalent of a zero on all forum posts) and an F in the class on a second offense. If you do the readings, you should have no trouble responding to the prompt in a way that is sufficient for credit without looking at any other sources. Postings will be graded on a credit/no-credit basis and are due before Sunday 11:55pm at the end of each week.

Late posts will not receive credit. Give yourself 30 minutes to review and edit your post after you have made it, making sure the formatting matches if you have copied and pasted it from a word processing program. If it doesn't match the font style and size, save as plain text in your word processor and try again. Set a weekly reminder in your phone or online calendar so you don't forget to post (while you’re at it, you might want to put in the exam dates and grade option/drop deadline, too). Posts of fewer than 100 words will not receive credit. Use the word count feature in your word processor or online if you are in doubt. If your post is over 300 words, edit it down. An extra credit forum will be available in Week Ten to make up for one missed post. Students are also expected to read every post and pay special attention to posts made by the instructor.