Arts, Sciences, and Engineering Philosophy
Course Section Listing Course Course Title Term Credits Status
COURSE_SECTION-3-175742 PHIL 105-01 Reason and Argument Fall 2024 4.0 Open
Schedule:
Day Begin End Location Start Date End Date
MW 1025 AM 1140 AM Meliora Room 221 08/26/2024 12/18/2024
Enrollment: Enrolled     
53 		Capacity     
75
Instructors: Ur Staff
Delivery Mode: In-Person
Description: This course will provide you with the essential skills you need to distinguish good arguments from bad arguments, and to approach any given subject matter in a rational, systematic manner.           In order to decide what to believe and what to do, we have to reason: we have to start with some initial beliefs or assumptions, and then draw conclusions from these starting points. For instance, you might wonder whether taking this course will be useful to you. You might reason as follows: “It would certainly be useful for me to be able to tell whether someone is giving me good reason to believe something, or whether they are only trying to trick me into believing something by appealing to my emotions. PHIL 105 will help me develop these skills. So, taking PHIL 105 will be useful for me!” 

We can often make our reasoning processes explicit and express them in language, like in the case of your hypothetical reasoning above. Arguments are what we get when we make reasoning explicit. More precisely, an argument is a set of claims or statements, one of which is the conclusion, and some of which are the premises supposed to support the conclusion. Your hypothetical reasoning above was thus an argument for the claim that this course is useful for you. Was it a good one? That’s the kind of question you will learn to answer in this course. More generally, the goal of this course is to teach you how to identify, analyze, and evaluate arguments made by others, and to construct arguments of your own in order to decide what to believe and what to do about what matters to you. You will learn basic rules to follow when reasoning about any topic whatsoever, and common mistakes to avoid. You will also learn strategies to avoid being misled by falsehoods, including falsehoods that come from the media and from online sources. The skills you will learn in this course are essential to help you get at the truth, and to make good decisions in all aspects of your life. 
Offered: Fall Spring Summer
Course Section Listing Course Course Title Term Credits Status
COURSE_SECTION-3-154873 PHIL 105-1 Reason and Argument Fall 2023 4.0 Closed
Schedule:
Day Begin End Location Start Date End Date
MW 200 PM 315 PM Bausch & Lomb Room 106 08/30/2023 12/22/2023
Enrollment: Enrolled     
78 		Capacity     
77
Instructors: Zeynep Soysal
Delivery Mode: In-Person
Restrictions: Instructor Permission
Description: This course will provide you with the essential skills you need to distinguish good arguments from bad arguments, and to approach any given subject matter in a rational, systematic manner.           In order to decide what to believe and what to do, we have to reason: we have to start with some initial beliefs or assumptions, and then draw conclusions from these starting points. For instance, you might wonder whether taking this course will be useful to you. You might reason as follows: “It would certainly be useful for me to be able to tell whether someone is giving me good reason to believe something, or whether they are only trying to trick me into believing something by appealing to my emotions. PHIL 105 will help me develop these skills. So, taking PHIL 105 will be useful for me!” 

We can often make our reasoning processes explicit and express them in language, like in the case of your hypothetical reasoning above. Arguments are what we get when we make reasoning explicit. More precisely, an argument is a set of claims or statements, one of which is the conclusion, and some of which are the premises supposed to support the conclusion. Your hypothetical reasoning above was thus an argument for the claim that this course is useful for you. Was it a good one? That’s the kind of question you will learn to answer in this course. More generally, the goal of this course is to teach you how to identify, analyze, and evaluate arguments made by others, and to construct arguments of your own in order to decide what to believe and what to do about what matters to you. You will learn basic rules to follow when reasoning about any topic whatsoever, and common mistakes to avoid. You will also learn strategies to avoid being misled by falsehoods, including falsehoods that come from the media and from online sources. The skills you will learn in this course are essential to help you get at the truth, and to make good decisions in all aspects of your life. 
Offered: Fall Spring Summer
Course Section Listing Course Course Title Term Credits Status
COURSE_SECTION-3-133698 PHIL 105-1 Reason and Argument Fall 2022 4.0 - 0.0 Closed
Schedule:
Day Begin End Location Start Date End Date
MW 200 PM 315 PM Bausch & Lomb Room 106 08/31/2022 12/22/2022
Enrollment: Enrolled     
50 		Capacity     
50
Instructors: James Otis
Description: Methods of identifying, interpreting, reconstructing, and evaluating reasoning found in speeches, essays, editorials, magazine articles, and scientific reports. Analytical methods mastered in this course do not include those of formal symbolic logic.
Offered: Fall Spring Summer