2020su-apmodr1760f-06

AP/MODR1760 6.0 F: Reasoning About Morality and Values

Offered by: MODR


 Session

Summer 2020

 Term

SU

Format

ONLN (Fully Online)

Instructor

Calendar Description / Prerequisite / Co-Requisite

This is a skills-based course focusing on critical thinking, critical writing, and logical and linguistic analysis. The course uses examples drawn from areas in the humanities where value judgements are made. Different sections will stress different topics in ethics, aesthetics, religion or law. Course credit exclusions: AP/MODR 1730 6.00, AP/MODR 1770 6.00.


Course Start Up

Course Websites hosted on York's "eClass" are accessible to students during the first week of the term. It takes two business days from the time of your enrolment to access your course website. Course materials begin to be released on the course website during the first week. To log in to your eClass course visit the York U eClass Portal and login with your Student Passport York Account. If you are creating and participating in Zoom meetings you may also go directly to the York U Zoom Portal.

For further course Start Up details, review the Getting Started webpage.

For IT support, students may contact University Information Technology Client Services via askit@yorku.ca or (416) 736-5800. Please also visit Students Getting Started UIT or the Getting Help - UIT webpages.


    Additional Course Instructor/Contact Details

Cael Cohen, PhD

Email: ccohen@schulich.yorku.ca

Tel or Text: 647-880-1237

Office Hours: By appointment only; Telephone, Skype or Zoom.

    Expanded Course Description
Description of Course:

 

  • This skills-based course teaches students how to read, write and think critically through: (1) a collection of critical skills, practices, techniques, attitudes and principles that can be used every day to systematically evaluate your own and others’ reasoning about morality and values; (2) an approach to ethical disagreements and controversial moral issues using rational standards and mindfulness awareness; (3) critical assessment and formulation of ethical beliefs, arguments, and concepts based on relevant, acceptable and sufficient grounds, rather than passive acceptance.

 

  • Why bother taking this course? This course teaches critical reading, writing and thinking skills that can help students:
    • Increase ability to assess situations and act in a way that reflects reasoned assessment and choices.
    • Understand the world more clearly.
    • Clarify confusing ideas.
    • Analyze reasons and claims.
    • Evaluate the quality of claims and arguments.
    • Gain a better understanding of who you are by enhancing your autonomy, what you believe, and who you can become.
    • Give you more control of your life by grounding your understanding, decisions, and actions on reason rather than merely on a gut feeling, habit or social convention.
    • Read for meaning better and systematically assess what is read.
    • Think more independently.
    • Formulate stronger, more convincing arguments that depend on relevant, sufficient and acceptable reasons.

 
    Additional Requirements
Special Features:

 

  • This course is skills-based, consequently, this course requires: (1) completion of homework to learn and practice the skills; (2) and completion of Lecture Participation Assignments (LPAs) to learn and practice the skills.
  • This course is fully online. Students do not show up in person for any classes. All homework, exams and assignments will be submitted electronically to Moodle for grading.
  • This is course is an accelerated, double-time course, with two lectures per week. Lectures are on average from 90 minutes to 2 hours of lecture recordings twice a week. Lecture recordings will be posted on Monday and Thursday. Course work assigned in a Monday session will be due before 9:00 am on the following Thursday. Course work assigned in a Thursday session will be due before 9:00 am on the following Monday. You do NEED to keep up. Here’s why: this is a practical, skills-based, course. To become strong at any skill, practice is needed. Accordingly, there is an emphasis on continuous engagement in the course. If you anticipate not viewing lecture recordings due to conflicts with work, your other classes, or personal commitments, you are strongly urged to rethink whether you should enroll in this course. This course requires: (1) completion of homework to learn and practice the skills; (2) and completion of Lecture Participation Assignments (LPAs) to learn and practice the skills.
  • Participation marks require that you view lecture recordings consistently to be able to successfully complete assignments. You cannot pass this course without viewing lecture recordings and doing the readings. You can review the “Session Lecture Schedule” below to see when participation work and other assignments are scheduled.
  • General Education course.
  • There are course credit exclusions on MODR1730, 1760, and 1770 as a set.  Students cannot take two Modes of Reasoning courses for credit.

 
    Required Course Text / Readings

Required reading for this course includes the one book listed below and several supplementary readings posted to the Moodle course site. This book is available for purchase from the York University Bookstore. Every week, students should check the weekly lecture schedule for the required readings. (See pages 5 – 13 of this course outline.)

 

  • Critical Thinking: Argument and Argumentation. 2014. 2nd Edition. Authors: Jean Saindon and Peter John Krek. ISBN: 978-0-17-666100-7. Publisher: Nelson Education.
    Weighting of Course
Graded Assessment:

·         Online Test #1 = 15%.

·         Online Test #2 = 20%.

·         Passage Analysis Assignment with Short Essay 35%.

·         Homework = 20%.

·         Participation = 10%. Consists of weekly Lecture Participation Assignments (LPAs).

 

 

 

Online Test #1—15%: Session 8: Test is available from Monday, June 8, 9 am up until Thursday, June 11, 9 am. Once opened, the test must be written. It is IMPORTANT that you open the test when you have a continuous, three hour block of time, in which to write the test.

Test #1 is a three-hour, fully online, time-limited, test, written on the Moodle course site in the form of a quiz containing differently formatted questions. It will likely not take you three hours to write the test, however, the test will remain open for the full three hours and immediately lock up and close at exactly three hours of you opening it. For more information about the test instructions, format, requirements and grading criteria, see Session 7 lecture. Practice test and grading criteria will be provided beforehand. Must be students’ own original, independent work. Collaboration is not permitted.

 

Online Test #1—20%: Session 15: Test is available from Monday, July 6, 9 am up until Thursday, July 9, 9 am. Once opened, the test must be written. It is IMPORTANT that you open the test when you have a continuous, three hour block of time, in which to write the test.

Test #2 is a three-hour, fully online, time-limited, test, written on the Moodle course site in the form of a quiz containing differently formatted questions. It will likely not take you three hours to write the test, however, the test will remain open for the full three hours and immediately lock up and close at exactly three hours of you opening it. For more information about the test instructions, format, requirements and grading criteria, see Session 14 lecture. Practice test and grading criteria will be provided beforehand. Must be students’ own original, independent work. Collaboration is not permitted.

 

Passage Analysis Assignment with Short Essay—35%: Session 24.

Due Monday, August 10, 2020, 11:59 pm.

Select a passage from a set of provided passages. Analyze the passage following the techniques and steps taught in class. Includes 1000-1250 word written essay. Must follow the techniques, skills and model taught in lectures. Grading criteria provided. Must be students’ own original, independent work. Collaboration is not permitted. To be submitted to Moodle course site. Turnitin.com, a commercial, Internet-based plagiarism detection service, will be used from within the Moodle site.

 

Homework—20%. 10 homework assignments, each worth 2% for a total of 20%.

All homework will be submitted online to the Moodle course site. Homework assigned in a Monday session will be due in the following Thursday session before 9:00 am. Homework assigned in the Thursday session will be due in the following Monday session before 9:00 am. Homework answers are graded based on the quality of the answer, and are NOT for completion only. Answers must follow the models and formats taught in class. See “Lecture Schedule” below (pgs. 5-13) for due dates.

 

 

Late homework will NOT be accepted under ANY circumstances, including late enrollment and illness. Homework must be students’ own original, independent work. Collaboration is not permitted, unless specified by the course instructor.

 

 

Participation—15%

 

Lecture Participation Assignments (LPAs) are assigned almost every  lecture and are to be submitted online. LPAs are marked for completion only, however, answers must attempt to follow the models and formats taught in class. LPAs assigned in Monday sessions will be due the following Thursday session at 9:00 am. LPAs assigned in Thursday sessions will be due the following Monday before 9:00 am. Lecture Participation Assignments will NOT be accepted late and cannot be made up, under any circumstances, including late enrollment or illness.

 
    Organization of the Course

 

Session 1: Monday, May 11, 2020

Introduction to the course. Guided tour of the Course Outline. Harnessing the power of critical thinking. Cultivating a critical thinking mindset and skills.

 

Topics: What does critical thinking mean? What does blind obedience to authority look like? What are the resources people need to resist authority? Why bother thinking critically and reasoning well? What are positive critical thinking habits of mind? Is a good critical thinker automatically a good person? How can I cultivate a positive critical thinking mindset? What questions can I ask to engage my critical thinking skills? What are core critical thinking skills? What aspects of my critical thinking do I wish to develop?

 

Required Reading: Critical Thinking, pgs. 4-8. PDF posted to Session 1 on course site: “The Delphi Report” by Dr. Peter A. Facione, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Santa Clara University, pages 1 – 14.

 

Session 2: Thursday, May 14, 2020

Arguments and nonarguments. Presenting orderly thoughts and mapping reasoning. Diagramming arguments. Putting arguments into Standard Argument Form.

 

Topics: What is an argument and not an argument? How can we use our analytical skills to discover the reasons people advance on behalf of the claims they are making? How can we use mapping to represent the relationships between reasons and claims? How do I present orderly thoughts? How do I recognize arguments? What is an inference? How do I become aware of unstated conclusions and premises? How do I map my own and other’s reasoning?

 

Required Reading: Critical Thinking, pgs. 12-19 & 56-81.

 

 

Session 3: Thursday, May 21, 2020

Presenting orderly thoughts and mapping reasoning continued. More practice putting arguments into Standard Argument Form. Introduction to informal fallacies. Five-step process for neutralizing fallacies. Three conditions for a good argument.

 

Topics: More practice putting arguments into Standard Argument Form. What are informal logical fallacies? How can I recognize and avoid committing mistakes in my everyday reasoning? What are the three conditions for a good argument? How can I recognize and assess irrelevant reasons, problematic premises and insufficient reasons? How can I create and present strong and effective arguments?

 

Required Reading: Critical Thinking, pgs. 164-170; 182-183. PDF posted to Session 3: “Three Conditions for a Good Argument.”

 

Homework #1: Due before Monday, May 25, 9:00 am. Questions and instructions posted to Session 3. Upload answers to Session 3 submission link.

 

 

Session 4: Monday, May 25, 2020

Becoming a clear thinker. Clarifying Thinking and Meaning. Common mistakes in reasoning: Fallacy of Equivocation, Amphiboly, Accent, Hypostatization, Division and Composition.

 

Topics: How can I clarify meaning? Am I being clear? How can I recognize vagueness, ambiguity and equivocation? What does it mean to be precise when using language? How aware am I of prejudicial and emotionally charged language? What are signal words?

 

Required Reading: Critical Thinking, pgs. 28-46; 191-192.

 

Homework #2: Due before Thursday, May 28, 9:00 am. Questions and instructions posted to Session 4. Upload answers to Session 4 submission link.

 

 

Session 5: Thursday, May 28, 2020

Identifying and using signal words. Reading for meaning. How to annotate and clarify a passage.

 

Topics: How can I identify signal words to help read for meaning and clarify meaning? How do I mark up and annotate an extended passage in order to determine: what the passage is about; what the author is trying to accomplish; what the passage is doing; the main conclusion of the passage; the purpose and main ideas in the passage? How can I ensure that I am reading actively for meaning?

 

Required Reading: Critical Thinking, read pgs. 210-218.

 

Homework #3: Due before Monday, June 1, 9:00 am. Questions and instructions posted to Session 5. Upload answers to Session 5 submission link.

 

 

Session 6: Monday, June 1, 2020

Applying intellectual standards to reasoning. Engaging in ethical disagreement. Becoming an intellectually mature critical thinker. Common mistakes in reasoning: Personal attack and appeal to emotion fallacies; Genetic, Strawperson and Red Herring fallacies. False Dichotomy fallacy.

 

Topics: What are some psychological, emotional impediments to good reasoning? What are some basic rules of behavior that an intellectually mature person would be expected to follow when involved in a rational argument? What are the characteristics of the ideal argument partner? What are some strategies for developing intellectual humility? What is the criteria for a mature, effective, ethical process of argumentation? What kind of argument partner would I most like to argue with and why? Why is paying attention to your argument partner so important? How can I recognize and neutralize personal attack and appeal to emotion fallacies?

 

Required Reading: Critical Thinking, pgs. 20-23; 172-182; 192-196; 205; 281-290.

 

Homework #4: Due before Thursday, June 4, 9:00 am. Questions and instructions posted to Session 6. Upload answers to Session 6 submission link.

 

 

Session 7: Thursday, June 4, 2020

Instructions, requirements and review for TEST#1. Guided tour of sample test.

 

Topic: What is the format of the test? What is the grading criteria for the test? What kinds of questions will be on the test?

 

Required Reading: None.

 

 

Session 8: Monday, June 8, 2020

TEST #1 - Test is available from Monday, June 8, 9 am up until Thursday, June 11, 9 am. Once opened, the test must be written. It is IMPORTANT that you open the test when you have a continuous, three hour block of time, in which to write the test.

 

Test #1 is a three-hour, fully online, time-limited, test, written on the Moodle course site in the form of a quiz containing differently formatted questions. It will likely not take you three hours to write the test, however, the test will remain open for the full three hours and immediately lock up and close at exactly three hours of you opening it. For more information about the test instructions, format, requirements and grading criteria, see Session 7 lecture. Once opened, the test must be written. It is IMPORTANT that you open the test when you have a continuous, three hour block of time, in which to write the test.

 

 

Session 9: Thursday, June 11, 2020

Commonly occurring arguments – Identifying and assessing generalizations.

 

Topics: What are non-deductive arguments? What are the four most commonly occurring kinds of non-deductive arguments? How can I recognize and assess generalizations? How do I know if a generalization is reliable?

 

Required Reading: Critical Thinking, pgs.118-123.

 

 

Session 10: Monday, June 15, 2020

Commonly occurring arguments – Identifying and assessing generalizations continued. Common mistakes in reasoning: Hasty generalization and sweeping generalization fallacies.

 

Topics: More practice identifying and assessing generalizations. How can I recognize and neutralize hasty and sweeping generalization fallacies?

 

Required Reading: Critical Thinking, pg. 202.

 

Homework #5: Due before Thursday, June 18, 9:00 am. Questions and instructions posted to Session 10. Upload answers to Session 10 submission link.

 

 

Session 11: Thursday, June 18, 2020

Commonly occurring arguments – Identifying and assessing causal arguments. Common mistakes in reasoning: Slippery Slope and False Cause fallacies.

 

Topics: How can I recognize and assess causal arguments? How do I know if a causal connection is established in an argument? How can I recognize and neutralize Slippery Slope and False Cause fallacies.

 

Required Reading: Critical Thinking, pgs. 123-126; 202-203.

 

Homework #6: Due before Monday, June 22, 9:00 am. Questions and instructions posted to Session 11. Upload answers to Session 11 submission link.

 

 

Session 12: Monday, June 22, 2020

Commonly occurring arguments – Identifying and assessing expert opinion or appeals to authority. Common mistakes in reasoning: Appeal to Authority fallacies.

 

Topics: How can I recognize and assess arguments based on expert opinion? How can I tell if someone is an expert, or merely has uninformed opinions about some topic or issue? How can I identify and neutralize expert opinion fallacies?

 

Required Reading: Critical Thinking, pgs. 130-134; 200-201.

 

 

Session 13: Monday, June 29, 2020

Commonly occurring arguments – Identifying and assessing arguments from analogy. Common mistakes in reasoning: Weak analogy fallacy.

 

Topics: How can I recognize and assess arguments using analogies? How can I tell if an analogy is weak or warranted? What are the three conditions for a strong, well-defended argument?

 

Required Reading: Critical Thinking, pgs. 126-130; 206-207.

 

Homework #7: Due before Thursday, July 2, 9:00 am. Questions and instructions posted to Session 13. Upload answers to Session 13 submission link.

 

 

Session 14: Thursday, July 2, 2020

Instructions, requirements and review for TEST#2. Guided tour of sample test.

 

Topic: What is the format of the test? What is the grading criteria for the test? What kinds of questions will be on the test?

 

Required Reading: None.

 

 

Session 15: Monday, July 6, 2020

TEST #2 - Test is available from Monday, July 6, 9 am up until Thursday, July 9, 9 am. Once opened, the test must be written. It is IMPORTANT that you open the test when you have a continuous, three hour block of time, in which to write the test.

 

Test #1 is a three-hour, fully online, time-limited, test, written on the Moodle course site in the form of a quiz containing differently formatted questions. It will likely not take you three hours to write the test, however, the test will remain open for the full three hours and immediately lock up and close at exactly three hours of you opening it. For more information about the test instructions, format, requirements and grading criteria, see Session 14 lecture. Once opened, the test must be written. It is IMPORTANT that you open the test when you have a continuous, three hour block of time, in which to write the test.

 

 

Session 16: Thursday, July 9, 2020

Introduction to Concepts and identifying concepts. Generating Cases for Determining Meaning and Use of Concepts: Model, Contrary and Borderline Cases.

 

Topics: What is a concept? How does the complex conceptualizing process that is going on all the time in my mind work? How does this process enable me to think in a distinctly human way? How do I form concepts through experience? What is the structure of concepts? How is the process of forming concepts through generalizing and interpreting enacted? What does it mean for a claim, question or statement to be conceptual? How can I determine the meaning of concepts without doing any outside research using reasoning by cases?

 

Required Reading: Critical Thinking, pgs. 232-234; pgs. 46-53, 234-257. Also read PDF articles, “What is conceptual analysis?” and “Techniques of Analysis,” posted to Session 15.

 

 

Session 17: Monday, July 13, 2020

Portray the Conceptual Structure in a Passage. How to assess ideas.

 

Topics: How can I determine what the author means by the main concepts? How can I portray the conceptual structure in the passage? How do I judge whether an author has properly understood the central concepts of an extended passage? How do I appraise whether the author has understood the central ideas appropriately?  What is the criteria for good definitions?

 

Required Reading: Critical Thinking, read pgs. 76-79 pgs. 46-55 & 232-251.

 

Homework #8: Due before Thursday, July 16, 9:00 am. Questions and instructions posted to Session 17. Upload answers to Session 17 submission link.

 

 

Session 18: Thursday, July 16, 2020

Portray the basic argument structure in the passage. How to diagram and assess extended arguments.

 

Topics: How do I diagram an argument in an extended passage? How do I evaluate a multi-part, complex argument in an extended passage? How do I determine whether an argument in an extended passage gives reasons that irrelevant, unacceptable or insufficient? How do I find and neutralize fallacies in extended passages?

 

Required Reading: Critical Thinking, read pgs. 219-227.

 

Homework #9: Due before Monday, July 20, 9:00 am. Questions and instructions posted to Session 18. Upload answers to Session 18 submission link.

 

 

Session 19: Monday, July 20, 2020

The elements and logic of ethical reasoning. Three different ways of thinking about doing the right thing?

 

Topics: What are the basic elements of ethical reasoning? How can I figure out the logic of an ethical question? What are the seven most prevalent, widespread, ethical principles of the Western World?

 

Required Reading: PDFs posted to Session 19.

 

 

Session 20: Thursday, July 23, 2020

Combining and harnessing the skills: Passage Analysis.

 

Topics: How can I combine all of the skills that I learned in this course with the aim of analyzing a passage or dynamic process of argumentation?

 

Required Reading: PDF posted to Session 20.

 

 

Session 21: Monday, July 27, 2020

How to write Sound and Effective Arguments. How to write an essay.

 

Topics: How can I prepare an outline or diagram of my ideas? What is a thesis statement? How do I write a substantive and effective thesis statement? How do I write the body of an essay? How do I write an effective introduction and conclusion?

 

Required Reading: Required Reading: Critical Thinking, pgs. 292-320.

 

Homework #10: Due before Thursday, July 30, 9:00 am. Questions and instructions posted to Session 21. Upload answers to Session 21 submission link.

 

 

Session 22: Thursday, July 30, 2020

Review of Passage Analysis Steps. Passage Analysis Assignment instructions, requirements and grading criteria.

 

Topics: What are the passage analysis assignment instructions, requirements and grading criteria? What do I need to do to get an “A” on the passage analysis assignment?

 

Required Reading: None.

 

 

Session 23: Thursday, August 6, 2020

No class. Work on completing the Passage Analysis Assignment.

 

 

Session 24: Monday, August 10, 2020

Submit the Passage Analysis Assignment to submission link posted to Session 24. Due before 11:59 pm.

    Course Learning Objectives
  • Clarify meaning in arguments and passages.
  • Recognize and avoid prejudicial and emotional rhetoric in arguments.
  • Analyze, identify, portray and assess non-deductive arguments.
  • Identify, neutralize, and avoid common errors in reasoning, specifically informal logical fallacies.
  • Analyze, practice and assess dynamic processes of verbal argumentation with others, including: constructing and presenting arguments, and challenging and responding to those challenges in an ongoing dialogue.
  • Recognize and identify some core patterns that help define the key features of an ideal argumentation encounter.
  • Identify, analyze and assess concepts or abstract ideas in ordinary contexts.
  • Use the techniques of reasoning by cases, similarities and differences, and conjectures and refutations to analyze cases and develop criteria for the meaning of concepts or ideas.
  • Determine the meaning of abstract ideas using reasoning by cases.
  • Formulate and write sound and effective arguments and essays.
  • Develop skills required to read and listen for meaning.
  • Recognize and develop the necessary skills for ethical disagreement.
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