Maricopa Community Colleges  PHI106   19946-19985 
Official Course Description: MCCCD Approval: 03/22/94
PHI106 19946-19985 LEC 3 Credit(s) 3 Period(s)
Critical Thinking
Commonly used informal fallacies; examination of emotive and unclear uses of language, including sexism and loaded terms; and methods for analyzing extended arguments. Application to news media, advertising, political speeches, and textbooks. Prerequisites: None. PHI103 suggested but not required.
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MCCCD Official Course Competencies:
 
PHI106   19946-19985 Critical Thinking
1. Describe the structure of an argument, and explain whether it is inductive or deductive. (I)
2. Identify and critically analyze the occurence of the common informal fallacies. (II)
3. Contrast the emotive and the cognitive meanings of language. (II)
4. Identify ambiguous and/or vague uses of language. (II)
5. Critically analyze definitions of language. (II)
6. Identify and critically analyze sexism in language. (II)
7. Critically analyze extended arguments, using margin note-summary method. (II)
8. Apply techniques of critical analysis to advertising, newspapers, news magazines, television news, and textbooks. (II)
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MCCCD Official Course Outline:
 
PHI106   19946-19985 Critical Thinking
    I. Fundamentals of Logic
        A. Deductive and inductive arguments
        B. Premise and conclusion indicators
        C. Analysis of an argument
        D. Applications of logical methods to analysis of ordinary language arguments
      II. Informal Fallacies
          A. Fallacious because invalid
            1. Appeal to authority
            2. Provincialism
            3. Irrelevant reason
            4. Ambiguity
            5. Slippery slope
            6. Ad Hominem
            7. Two wrongs
            8. Tokenism
            9. Hasty conclusions
            10. Questionable classification
            11. Questionable cause
            12. Questionable analogy
          B. Fallacious even if vakid
            1. Suppressed evidence
            2. Questionable premise
              a. Unknown fact
              b. Questionable evaluation
              c. Straw man
              d. False dilemma
              e. Begging the question
              f. Inconsistency
            3. False charge of fallacy
          C. Statistics and fallacies
            1. Suppressed evidence
            2. Questionable statistics
            3. Hasty conclusion
            4. Small sample
            5. Unrepresentative sample
            6. Questionable cause
            7. Faulty comparison
            8. Ambiguity
          D. Language
            1. Emotive vs. Cognitive meaning
            2. Emotive meaning and con artistry
            3. Ambiguous language
            4. Vagueness in language
            5. Useful and misleading definitions
            6. Sexism in language
          E. Analysis of extended-arguments
            1. The margin note-summary method
            2. Analysis of editorials
            3. Analysis of political columns and articles
            4. Analysis of political speechesw
          F. Application of techniques
            1. Advertising
            2. News media
            3. Textbooks
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