California State University, Chico
Department of Philosophy
-- Fall 2006 --
PHIL 102
Logic and Critical Thinking
Greg Tropea / Curtis Peldo
Tutors: Phil Clements
Adam Birdwell
Angela Martinez
"In order to be capable of thinking, we need to learn it first."--Martin Heidegger
Where to find us and when...
Instructors' offices: Trinity 118 (Tropea) / Trinity 104 (Peldo)
Scheduled office hours held in the Critical Thinking Resource Room, Modoc 118A
Click here for the Resource Room FINALS WEEK schedule
Appointments for other times can be made and drop-in visits are welcome
Email assistance: Tropea's email: gtropea@csuchico.edu
Peldo's email: cpeldo@csuchico.edu
Please use WebCT email for course-related communications.
Tropea's Web Site: http://www.csuchico.edu/phil/gtropea_home.html
Peldo's Web Site: http://www.curtispeldo.com
About the reading for this course...
  • Critical Thinking, 8th edition, by Brooke Moore and Richard Parker (CT)
  • WWW pages liinked in the syllabus with weekly assignments and objectives and WebCT
    Purpose of the course...
    The CSU Executive Order (Chancellor's Office) governing critical thinking courses establishes our agenda this way: "Instruction in critical thinking is to be designed to achieve an understanding of the relationship of language to logic, which should lead to the ability to analyze, criticize, and advocate ideas, to reason inductively and deductively, and to reach factual or judgmental conclusions based on sound inferences drawn from unambiguous statements of knowledge or belief. The minimal competence to be expected at the successful conclusion of instruction in critical thinking should be the demonstration of skills in elementary inductive and deductive processes, including an understanding of the formal and informal fallacies of language and thought, and the ability to distinguish matters of fact from issues of judgment or opinion."

    All PHIL 102 courses satisfy CSU Chico General Education requirements in Area A3. This campus's policy states that students in a Critical Thinking course must demonstrate
    1. ability to distinguish between fact and judgment and between belief and knowledge;
    2. ability to distinguish between correct and incorrect reasoning, including an understanding of the formal and informal fallacies in language and thought;
    3. knowledge of and skill in using elementary methods and patterns of reasoning, including induction and deduction; and
    4. ability to criticize, analyze, and advocate ideas with logical force within human discourse, both oral and written.

    The University also intends for every course to be appropriately rigorous. Our most recent statement on academic rigor can be found here. If the expectations it describes are not clear to you, don't hesitate to talk about it with a member of the instructional staff.

    How we'll translate these policy statements into practice...
  • Large group meetings in the Harlen Adams Theater on Monday and Wednesday of most weeks, sometimes Monday, Wednesday and Friday, consisting of lectures, other presentations, discussions, and group work (Friday meetings to be announced in class)
  • Casual Fridays, which allow flexibly scheduled meetings with instructional staff or other students to accomplish the week's learning objectives (Note: A formal class meeting can be called for any Friday by the instructors or a majority vote of the class.)
  • Study of critical thinking theory, especially as presented in our textbook
  • Self-assessments, quizzes, writing, and optional video assignments that focus on your understanding of key points of critical thinking method, with most writing to be done in WebCT
  • Conversations outside of scheduled class activities, which can often accomplish a lot in a little time
    Grading...
    These percentages are advisory guidelines to the final grade.
    Participation and quizzes 25%
    Mid-term exam 15%
    Cumulative final examination on theory and application of critical thinking method 25%
    Analytical writing or instructional video
    		35%
    Note on quizzes: Quizzes, all in WebCT, are pass-fail, with a passing grade of 60%. If your grade is lower than that, you can raise it to passing by coming in to the Resource Room and going over the quiz in detail with one of the instructional staff within two weeks of the posting of quiz grades.
    Note on chapter reviews: Chapter reviews, also in WebCT, are pass-fail, with passing at 100%. You have unlimited tries to earn 100% on chapter reviews.
    Note on percentages: The percentages above are advisory only. Final grades may be affected beyond these percentages positively by especially meritorious performance in some part of the course or negatively by seriously deficient performance in one or more areas, including low participation in course activities as evidenced by in-class writing. Do not underestimate the importance of class participation (the CW1 and CW2 columns in WebCT) for your final grade. The total of class participation items is reduced by the square of missing items, with negative values possible.

    Course Schedule by Week

    To get the full benefit of this course, assigned reading must be done before coming to class. This will ensure that vocabulary is familiar. To help focus your reading and your attention in class, you should familiarize yourself with the critical thinking terms and objectives listed for each week. Note that there is a 5-question chapter review quiz (e.g., TR1) in WebCT usually scheduled before each week's classes, beginning in Week 2. Passing is 100%, but you can take these as many times as you want during the open period.

    The PowerPoint presentations related to each week's work are linked below. You can view them in your web browser or in PowerPoint, which is preferable. If you do not have PowerPoint on your computer, you can download a PowerPoint Viewer. Click here for Windows. Click here for Macintosh. A free version of StarOffice is available here for Linux and Windows users.

    Use this syllabus as a study guide for the semester and for the final exam.

    Check WebCT regularly for open times of Tests, Quizzes (Q), Chapter Reviews (CR), and Casual Friday Reports (CF). Only exceptional WebCT events are listed below.

    Week 1
    "The highest form of bliss is living with a certain degree of folly." (Desiderius Erasmus, humanist, 1466-1536) Writing #1: "Intro" on WebCT, open until Wednesday of Week 2 at 11 PM
    Week 2
    "The specific meaning of God depends on what is the most desirable for a person." (Erich Fromm, psychoanalyst/psychologist, 1900-1980) Quiz #1 (Q1) on WebCT; see WebCT for open period
    Be sure to file the Casual Friday report (CF1) for this week.
    Week 3 Note: Class meets Wednesday and Friday this week.
    "How things seem to be is good grounds for a belief about how things are." (Richard Swinburne, philosopher of religion in The Existence of God) Quiz #2 (Q2) on WebCT; see WebCT for open period
    Week 4
    "We will be better and braver if we engage and inquire than if we indulge in the idle fancy that we already know - or that it is of no use seeking to know what we do not know." (Plato) Quiz #3 (Q3) on WebCT; see WebCT for open period
    Week 5
    "Trust your hunches. They're usually based on facts filed away just below the conscious level." (Dr. Joyce Brothers, psychologist) Quiz #4 (Q4) on WebCT; see WebCT for open period
    Week 6
    "It is how you play your poor hands rather than your good ones which counts in the long run." (General Douglas MacArthur)

    Begin work on drafts of critical thinking analysis project that are due on WebCT (in quiz section "draft") and in hard copy on Friday of Week 8 (Oct. 13; not a Casual Friday). An explanation of grading standards is located in the Analytical Writing Skills Rubric.

    Week 7 "Being defeated is often a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent." (Marilyn vos Savant, 1946- , professional genius, writer, investor)

    Work on drafts of critical thinking analyses and scripts that are due on WebCT (in quiz section "draft") and in hard copy on Friday of next week. An explanation of grading standards is located in the Analytical Writing Skills Rubric.

    Week 8
    "If you live to the age of a hundred you have it made because very few people die past the age of a hundred." (George Burns, comedian, 1896-1996) Note 1: Mid-term exam available on WebCT; see WebCT for open period.
    Note 2: No Casual Friday this week. Bring TWO HARD COPIES of draft work to class, one to hand in and one to exchange with another student.
    Note 3: SERIOUS LATENESS PENALTY IF DRAFTS ARE NOT BROUGHT TO CLASS.
    Week 9
    "Each small task of everyday life is part of the total harmony of the universe." (St. Therese de Lisieux, 1873-1897, one of the 33 Doctors of the Church) Quiz #5 (Q5) on WebCT; see WebCT for open period
    Week 10
    "The universe is not only stranger than you imagine it to be... it is stranger than you are able to imagine." (Albert Einstein)
    Week 11
    "There is no calamity which a great nation can invite which equals that which follows a supine submission to wrong and injustice." (Stephen Grover Cleveland, 1837-1908, 22nd & 24th President) Quiz #6 (Q6) on WebCT; see WebCT for open period
    Week 12
    "Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries." (James A. Michener, 1907-1997, in Chesapeake)
    Week 13
    "Thus, the task is, not so much to see what no one has yet seen; but to think what nobody has yet thought, about that which everybody sees." (Erwin Schroedinger, physicist, 1887-1961)
    Week 14
    "The only unnatural sex act is one which you cannot perform." (Alfred Kinsey, sex researcher) Quiz #7 on WebCT; see WebCT for open period
    Semester projects due at the end of this week.
    Week 15
    "The highest reward for a person's toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it." (John Ruskin, 1819-1900, essayist, friend of Alice [Alice in Wnderland] Liddell, and major influence on Mahatma Gandhi)
    Week 16