Critical Thinking
Phil. 4
Spring, 2024 Sections 5, 6
Hybrid
Catalog: PHIL 4. Critical Thinking. Study of the basic skills of good reasoning needed for the intelligent and responsible conduct of life. Topics include: argument structure and identification, validity and strength of arguments, common fallacies of reasoning, use and abuse of language in reasoning, principles of fair play in argumentation. Units: 3.0.
Text: There is no required text for this course. All readings for the course are online or in Canvas. The readings for each week are listed and linked on the schedule under the relevant weeks.
Course Description: This course is designed to improve one of the fundamental intellectual abilities, the capacity to think critically. A well-trained critical thinker has a number of skills that we will develop and practice.
This is a hybrid course. You must have a functioning, reliable computer and internet connection to be able to take this course. You will need to access course materials here and in Canvas daily. You will also need to create a Google Doc and access Google Docs to take this course.
No smart phone use, unless explicitly instructed by the professor, will be allowed in class.
Being late: Important class information is given in the first 10 minutes of every class. In addition, important, graded in-class points will be assessed in the first ten minutes of class. Don't be late.
Link to Course Schedule
The knowledge and skills to be studied in this course include:
Logical analysis and the identification and construction of arguments.
Understanding logical relations, in particular the relations between premises and conclusions.
Recognizing the more common forms of formal and informal fallacies.
Evaluating the relevance, validity, and strength of arguments.
Understanding the logical structure of deductive and inductive arguments.
Awareness of the abuses of language, including connotation, ambiguity, and definition.
Recognizing arguments in a variety of contexts, including other disciplines as well as in public affairs.
Improve ‘information competence’: the ability to find out what one needs to know in order to have a responsible position on an issue.
Acquiring an immunity to propaganda.
Developing not only the capacity but the disposition to use good reasoning in a variety of contexts.
Developing a sense of fairness and respect for opposing positions.
Developing basic thinking skills that are applicable to a variety of academic subjects and students' lives as citizens, consumers, leaders, and moral agents.
Improving our ability to argue fairly, and to handle bias, emotion, and propaganda.
Student Outcome Goals: At the end of the course the student should have the ability to:
Locate the argument in a passage
Detect errors of reasoning and explain how the reasoning is in error.
Engage in cogent and respectful discussion.
Analyze specific arguments for consistency and credibility.
Apply good reasoning to issues in professional and personal contexts.
Evaluate evidence and make appropriate inferences from that evidence.
Determine what evidence is necessary and know how to find that evidence, if possible.
Construct and defend arguments in support of or in opposition to particular propositions.
Analyze and solve complicated strategic challenges.
Scientific Reasoning, Critical Thinking, and the Irrationality: We will be considering arguments from a variety of sources such as the television news media, newspapers, articles, TED talks, politicians, statistical studies, science, parapsychologists, pseudo-science and so on. We will see how scientific reasoning that addresses double blind controls, the placebo effect, confirmation bias, and other issues is the best method for finding truth and avoiding error. We will also consider a wide range of common biases, mistakes in reasoning, and heuristics that are apparent in people's problem solving and thinking.
Racism, Sexism, Gender, Politics, and Religion: Clear critical thinking and intellectual discourse require open debate, free inquiry, and a willingness to subject all ideas, however cherished or sensitive, to scrutiny and critique. Diverse opinions must be heard, acknowledged, considered, and thoughtfully critiqued for the healthy development of the mind. Considering those diverse opinions requires maturity, objectivity, and circumspection.
Racism, sexism, gender, politics, and religion are some of the most sensitive and controversial topics in American culture, and they are also the topics that where thoughtful, respectful, and constructive discourse has become the most difficult. In the public discourse, in particular in social media, these topics reveal many of our most serious failures to think critically. Emotions and ideological commitments often derailed our ability to think clearly. They are topics where we make many of our most serious mistakes and they are topics where the ability to think clearly, rationally, and constructively are most needed. In the course of our considering a wide range of topics and arguments, examples of mistakes, biases, errors from these discussions will come up. Talking, thinking, and writing about these topics in ways that are 1) sensitive to the harms caused to victims but also 2) oriented toward the goals of being reasonable and acquiring knowledge is a difficult balance. We will talk about these topics and about controversial positions concerning them and we will strive to achieve that balance.
Student Assessment: Students' abilities to meet these outcome goals will be evaluated with Canvas assessments, homework assignments, in class midterm and final exams, and journal entries.
Grading: There will be 11 pairs of Canvas quizzes given throughout the semester. (We will take the high score from the pair). There will be an Argument Strength homework assignment (10%) and an Argument Reconstruction Homework assignment (10%). There will be a midterm and a final exam.
How the class is conducted: In a typical week, this will be the structure, although in some weeks there are multiple quizzes, and homework assignments also due:
Grading Structure for the Course:
All of the links to the readings, the YouTube lectures, the homework assignments, and the journal entries, with all of the due dates are on the Course Schedule.
No cheating and no violations of the Academic Honesty Policy of any sort will be tolerated in this course. All sources must be cited and given appropriate credit. The author of any information from the Internet or another student from class must be given credit; using such information without indicating the source is stealing someone else's hard work and it is immoral. Cutting and pasting someone else's work is not acceptable. It is also unacceptable to make minor revisions in language to disguise someone else's sentences/ideas. Submitting work from a cheating website or from other students is a violation of the policy.
It is unacceptable to do any coursework for anyone else, either in the course now, or in the future. If anyone approaches you to take a quiz, or do a course assignment for them, notify me immediately. Any students caught violating this or any of the other academic honesty policies will be failed from the course and reported to the administration for disciplinary action, within the bounds of the University Policy Manual.
From the university policy manual: Plagiarism at Sacramento State includes but is not limited to:
The act of incorporating into one’s own work the ideas, words, sentences, paragraphs, or parts thereof, or the specific substance of another’s work without giving appropriate credit thereby representing the product as entirely one's own. Examples include not only word-for-word copying, but also the "mosaic" (i.e., interspersing a few of one’s own words while, in essence, copying another’s work), the paraphrase (i.e., rewriting another’s work while still using the other’s fundamental idea or theory); fabrication (i.e., inventing or counterfeiting sources), ghost-writing (i.e., submitting another’s work as one’s own) and failure to include quotation marks on material that is otherwise acknowledged; and
Representing as one’s own another’s artistic or scholarly works such as musical compositions, computer programs, photographs, paintings, drawing, sculptures, or similar works.
Collaboration: Students are allowed, even encouraged, to discuss lectures, readings, and assignments with each other. But every students must do his or her own work. Be cautious of sharing your notes, ideas, work, assignments, or papers with other students. Once you have given them a copy of or access to your work, you cannot control what they might do with it. If two or more students' work are found to violate the policy, all of the students will receive the same punishment, even if one did the work and the other plagiarized. Also beware of relationships with other students in which you stand to lose more than you gain. A student who freeloads off of your hard work might elevates his or her grade (or he might bring yours down) without working, and you get no benefit. Furthermore, you put yourself at risk for severe penalties for cheating.
Here is part of the university policy on academic honesty:
The attempt by a student to cheat on an exam or other academic assignment or to engage in plagiarism is a violation of a fundamental principle of academic honesty and integrity and will not be tolerated in the University. Formal procedures exist for dealing with these cases and penalties will be imposed on students who are found guilty of academic dishonesty. In the event of expulsion, suspension or probation, a notation is made on the student’s transcript. Suspension and probation notations remain on the transcript for the life of the suspension/probation. For information, contact the office of the Vice President for Student Affairs.
Artificial Intelligence and Academic Misconduct:
Using an AI text generator for any class assignments, unless the instructor specifically instructs otherwise, is dishonest and will be considered a violation of the CSUS Academic Honesty policy here. https://www.csus.edu/umanual/student/stu-100.htm
Submitting any course assignments or prompts to an AI text generator and then submitting the results or any altered form of the results for credit for the assignment in class unless specifically instructed to do so by the instructor will be considered plagiarism, and it could be subject to the full range of sanctions outlined in the university policy. Here are some of the relevant passages from the policy:
Plagiarism at Sacramento State includes but is not limited to:
1. The act of incorporating into one’s own work the ideas, words, sentences, paragraphs, or parts thereof, or the specific substance of another’s work without giving appropriate credit thereby representing the product as entirely one's own. Examples include not only word-for-word copying, but also the "mosaic" (i.e., interspersing a few of one’s own words while, in essence, copying another’s work), the paraphrase (i.e., rewriting another’s work while still using the other’s fundamental idea or theory); fabrication (i.e., inventing or counterfeiting sources), ghost-writing (i.e., submitting another’s work as one’s own) and failure to include quotation marks on material that is otherwise acknowledged; and
2. Representing as one’s own another’s artistic or scholarly works such as musical compositions, computer programs, photographs, paintings, drawing, sculptures, or similar works.
Acceptable and Unacceptable Uses of AI Text Generators
Acceptable uses of GPT-3, Chatbot, or other AI text generators:
Don’t use an AI text generator at all.
Submitting your original text or answers to an AI text generator to catch spelling, grammar, and minor structure errors, and making minor revisions in response to the AI’s feedback.
Unacceptable uses of GPT-3, Chatbot, or other AI text generators:
Submitting any assignment question or prompt (or part of it, or something similar to it) to an AI text generator (unless you have been explicitly instructed to do so by the instructor) and then doing one or more of the following:
Reading the AI's response, and using the ideas in the response as inspiration for writing my own answer to the prompt using my own words, or by making changes in the AI’s wording.
Copying and pasting all or part of the AI response into the course submission.
Making making minor and/or major changes to the AI response, and submitting those results for the course assignment.
Using the the AI response to figure out the correct answers.
In addition to using TurnItIn, this course may use rapidly evolving technology (like this) to help detect when student writing has been assisted by AI technology (like Chat GPT). Improper use of AI technology can be grounds for a charge of plagiarism or other academic misconduct, leading to academic penalties (like failing a course) and administrative penalties (like expulsion from the university), regardless of when the academic misconduct is discovered. It is likely that, in the arms race that is digital technology, what seems like today’s detection-proof AI writing tool will be easy to detect by tomorrow, or next week, or next month.
All students will be responsible for reading and following the university honesty, plagiarism, and cheating policies. They are posted at:
How to contact your professor: Prof. McCormick can be reached at mccormick@csus.edu I also hold weekly office hours in MND 3020, and I hold Zoom office hours. See the homepage for hours and times.
How to correspond with your professors
Extra Credit: There will be no extra credit assignments in the course. Part of learning how to succeed in college is doing the assignments for the course, on time, and according to the instructions. There is ample slack built into the schedule and course structure: the quizzes will have two iterations, the due dates are all posted all semester, the journal assignments can be done early.
Some Advice about the Canvas assessments: The quizzes on Canvas are designed to assess student's mastery of concepts, techniques, and content that is presented in lectures and in the book. They are also designed to teach--later quizzes depend upon former quizzes, they are progressively harder, and they focus on different aspects of the various critical thinking skills we are trying to learn. The quizzes are timed, usually 30 minutes, and they are not repeatable. They are also only available to be taken for a limited time. So plan accordingly and be thoroughly prepared when you begin the quiz. Here is some advice about preparing for the quizzes and doing well on them: Preparing for Canvas Quizzes
How to take quizzes in Canvas: Go to http://csus.instructure.com. Login to Canvas using your CSUS Saclink ID and your password. Click on the link in your menu for this course. Then go to "Assignments" on the left. That page will list all of the live quizzes. Got to Canvas Resources for more information on how Canvas works.
Google Docs: the weekly journal entries for the class must be submitted in a Google Doc that you create for the course and share with the instructor. (me).
Getting Started: Create a Google Account:
Go to: https://www.google.com/accounts/ManageAccount If you don't already have an account, create one with the link on the lower right. Please don't use a pseudonym that is not recognizable as your name--I won't be able to give credits for posts from a mystery student named "oNixJUmper3." If you already have an account with a pseudonym, email me with your name and the account name. Also put your name on the Google Doc you are creating for the course.
Video: Instructions for Creating a Google Doc for Prof. McCormick's classes.
1. After you have established a Google account, you can go to this page https://www.google.com/accounts/ManageAccount to access other services, or you can go to www.google.com and login.
2. In the upper right hand corner, there are links in a pattern of 9 dots. Click on that, and then click on Drive.
3. To create a new document, click "Create" in the upper left hand corner, and click on "Document."
4. Type your work and edit it in the window that opens.
5. Give it a title by clicking on "Untitled Document" in the upper left, and renaming it. Your work will be periodically saved automatically.
You will create one document for this course. It should be named last name Critical Thinking. e.g. Smith Critical Thinking
I collect and put student work into folders by the title. Please do not put anything else in the title than last name Critical Thinking. No hyphens, quotes, dashes, commas, and so on. And please do not title the whole document after the heading for the first entry or I won't be able to find the work and give you credit for it.
All of your written work for the course will go into this file--Do not create multiple, separate files for the different assignments. One student, one document.
Do not share your Google Doc with anyone else except me and my teaching assistants.
I will track when the projects and papers were completed with the Revision History function in Google Docs. Any changes made to the documents made after the due date and time will be recorded there and be treated as late work according to the late policies on the Office Hours and Course Policies page.
As each project is due, open the document and add the project for that week to the top so that the document will contain all of them at the end of the semester. Each project will have a section heading in bold listed in the assignments.
6. Save the document with the "Save" button in the upper right.
7. Also on the upper right is a "Share" button. Click on it, then click on "Invite People." Be sure the "can edit" option is checked. If you don't share it with me as a collaborator, I cannot grade your work.
8. In the box that comes up, enter my email address: mccormick@csus.edu
9. Click: Invite Collaborators
10. Be sure to put your name on the document and in the message to me with your assignments.
11. Send it (bottom right), and be sure to send a copy to yourself for backup.
12. Explore the other functions in the Google docs program.
13. If you prefer to write your work in another program, do so, and then cut and paste it into Google Docs.
If you do upload a document, be sure to re-title your essay according to step 6 and follow the rest of the steps. Also be sure that the formatting has been preserved.
Here are a couple of videos explaining how Google Docs works:
Sharing Options in Google Docs
Critical Thinking Journal Entries
For most weeks in the semester, there will be a journal entry to complete in addition to our classroom work. These projects involve doing online readings or studying a video lecture and then completing some sort of writing assignment about them. Then you will be required to answer several questions about the material. You will put these assignments in your Google Doc. The journal assignments are linked on the class schedule.
Grading Criteria for Journal Entries: There are too many students and too many entries for me to give many individual comments or grades on them. I will give everyone some feedback early on in the semester, then it is up to the student to follow these criteria to receive full credit:
1) All of the entries must be completed. Any missing projects will result in a proportional reduction in the overall grade.
2) All of the journal entries must be completed on time. The time and date when it was submitted is available to me in the Revision History tab of Google Docs. Any revisions that occur after the due date will also be evident in the Revision History view. Late assignments will not be accepted.
3) All of the questions in the individual projects must be addressed. And they must be addressed specifically and thoroughly. A good strategy is to quote the entire assignment in your entry and address each part separately.
4) It will vary from project to project, but doing a thorough and acceptable job of addressing the questions will typically take at least 300 words. A few sentences or two short paragraphs won't be sufficient.
5) The entries must be completely free of spelling, grammar, and structure errors. They must meet the standards of written college English. Any entries that have spelling, grammar, and writing structure errors will not receive credit.
6) The entries must reflect a clear understanding of the arguments, concepts, principles, and distinctions that the philosopher in the video makes. The entries must be long enough and detailed enough to reflect your understanding.
7) If you are in doubt, write more. Take the opportunity to expand on the topic and questions under consideration. Offer some of your own ideas in addition to addressing the project questions. Entries that are only 5 sentences long, for example, will not receive credit.
Critical Thinking Journal Assignments
During the semester, and at the end, I will review all of your entries and determine to what extent they have satisfied these criteria. The grade on this portion of the coursework will be proportional.
Students with Disabilities
If you have a disability and require accommodations, you need to provide disability documentation to SSWD, Lassen Hall 1008, 916-278-6955.
http://www.csus.edu/sswd/index.html
Please discussion your accommodation needs with me after class or during my office hours early in the semester.
The CSU is committed to providing an electronic environment that is accessible to everyone, including individuals with disabilities. If you encounter any accessibility problems and need assistance, please contact Services to Students with Disabilities: http://www.csus.edu/sswd/; sswd@csus.edu; (916) 278-6955; (916) 278-7239 (TTY).
Students with accommodations that are certified by the Services to Students with Disabilities office are entitled to reasonable accommodations in the course in order to meet course curriculum requirements. Students are not absolved or exempt from any course requirements in virtue of a disability, however, in consultation with the instructor we will work some reasonable accommodations that make it possible for the student to meet those requirements. Note that the instructor must receive notice as soon as possible in order to accommodate, and if course assessment modalities are to be adjusted, then it will require a reasonable amount of time to reconfigure.