Apr 06, 2025  
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2025-2026 Catalog
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PHIL 113 - Critical Thinking

(3,0) 3 Credits

General Education Course: Humanities-Philosophy and Religion
Prerequisite(s): Placement into ENGL 111 English Composition I  with ENGL 070 English Composition I Workshop  , or higher.
This course introduces the student to the basic principles, techniques, and concepts of critically assessing beliefs, both our own as well as those of others. Emphasis is placed on formulation and evaluation of arguments as the fundamental practice of reasoning: forming beliefs supported by reasons drawn from the lifeworld. Students are introduced to a wide range of arguments from various areas of Philosophy, from metaphysical and scientific debates across questions of epistemology and language to ethics and politics. Concepts of truth, validity, definition, deduction, induction, fallacy, thought experiment, and bias (among others) are explained through their application to particular examples. Overall, the course aims to provide students with the know-how of critical thought to help them navigate the constantly shifting, intentionally distorted, and hotly contested space of reasons in order to form their own critical understanding of themselves in a highly complex world; all while protecting their understanding against manipulative and coercive forces deployed by rhetoric, propaganda, and ideology.

 

 


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