California State University, Chico
Department of Philosophy
-- Spring 2008 --
PHIL 102 Sections 10, 12, 13
Logic and Critical Thinking
Instructor: Greg Tropea
"In order to be capable of thinking, we need to learn it first."--Martin Heidegger
Where to find me and when...
Instructor's office: Trinity 118
Office hours: MWF 10-11; MW 3-4
Appointments for other times can be made and drop-in visits are welcome during scheduled hours
Email assistance: Instructor's campus email: gtropea@csuchico.edu
About the reading for this course...
  • Critical Points: A Deconstructive Method of Critical Thinking, online text
  • WWW pages linked in the syllabus with weekly assignments and objectives
    Purpose of the course...
    The CSU Executive Order (from the 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...
  • Regular class meetings whee attendance counts, consisting of lectures, other presentations, discussions, and group work
  • Study of critical thinking theory, in particular as presented in our online text
  • Self-assessments, quizzes, writing, and optional video projects that focus on your understanding of key points of the Critical Points method
  • Conversations outside of scheduled class activities, which can often accomplish a lot in a little time
    Grading...
    Participation and minor quizzes 25%
    Interim tests 15%
    Cumulative final examination on theory and application of critical thinking method 20%
    Writing 40%
    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. Do not underestimate the importance of class participation 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 should be skimmed before coming to class and reviewed afterward. 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.

    PowerPoint presentations related to any week's work are linked at that week's entry. These presentations provide an alternative perspective that may help you understand the readings. You can view them in your web browser or in PowerPoint, which is preferable. If you do not have PowerPoint on your computer, you may be able to download a PowerPoint Viewer. Click here for Windows. Click here for Macintosh OS7.x-9.x. And click here for Mac OS X (later versions only) or Linux.

    A guide for critical writing is located in the Analytical Writing Skills Rubric.

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

    Week 1
    "The highest form of bliss is living with a certain degree of folly." (Desiderius Erasmus, humanist, 1466-1536)
    Week 2
    "The specific meaning of God depends on what is the most desirable for a person." (Erich Fromm, psychoanalyst/psychologist, 1900-1980)
    Week 3
    "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)
    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)
    Week 5
    "Trust your hunches. They're usually based on facts filed away just below the conscious level." (Dr. Joyce Brothers, psychologist)
    Week 6
    "It is how you play your poor hands rather than your good ones which counts in the long run." (General Douglas MacArthur)

    Unit test; additional work TBA

    Week 7
    "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)
    Week 8
    "Being defeated is often a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent." (Marilyn vos Savant, 1946- , professional genius, writer, investor)
    Week 9
    "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)
    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)
    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)
    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 Wonderland] Liddell, and major influence on Mahatma Gandhi)
    Week 16
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