Philosophy 1250, Section 001

Reasoning and Rational Decision-Making

Sample Syllabus
Professor: Dr. Jane Drexler
Office: AAB 237R
Office Hours: MW 12-1; TR 2:30-3:00, or by appt
email: jane.drexler@slcc.edu; office phone: 801-957-4438
Salt Lake Community College
Humanities, Language and Culture Department

“The chances of factual truth surviving the

onslaught of power are very slim indeed.”
--Hannah Arendt, 1967

“Look, alternative facts are not facts. They’re falsehoods”

--Chuck Todd, NBC, Jan 22, 2017

“Fake News, Memes and Tweets, Oh My.”

--Dorothy
Course Catalog Description:
This course strengthens reasoning and argumentation skills in a variety of contexts--
professional, academic and public--through analyzing and evaluating argument-structure and
form, rules of inference, fallacies, analogical reasoning, and causal, statistical, probability, and
other inductive and deductive methodologies that ground our knowledge in the sciences, and in
political, moral and legal spheres.

COURSE DESCRIPTION
We live in a society that mass-produces chatter. We are deluged with assertions, arguments,
evidence, and diatribes to get us to buy that brand of peanut butter, to vote for that candidate,
to decide on a course of action at work, to choose a school for our kids, to live according to that
moral code, this political doctrine, and so forth. And we also contribute to the deluge. We
assert, argue, provide evidence, and spout diatribes, in both our public and our private lives.
With that incessant prattle comes the need to develop skills to decipher it, sift through it to find
the nuggets of wisdom from the mass of confusion. All of us want to clearly understand
issues, hold reasoned opinions, make good decisions, take the best courses of action, and not
be fooled, deceived or coerced. None of us wants our thinking to be manipulated to the extent
that we can be used as a tool for some purpose which is not (if we were to think clearly about
it) our own.

Addressing these issues—deciphering the deluge, developing critical thinking skills of logic and
argumentation, figuring out our own and others’ positions and how to communicate them
effectively—is the purpose of Reasoning and Rational Decision Making. In this class, we learn
specific steps of argument analysis; explore and evaluate various modes of reasoning within
different disciplines and social spheres; and analyze how knowledge claims and arguments are
created, justified, communicated and received—particularly scientific knowledge, political
discourse, and legal and moral reasoning.

As a 1000-level course, this course requires no prerequisites, and indeed, will help orient your
paper-writing, presentation, and analytical skills for future classes, in the workplace or in public
discourse. It is an effective class to take at any point in your college journey.
General Education: Communication
This class fills a CM (Communication) General Education requirement. Communication (CM)
courses focus on the study and application of principles and skills in verbal, nonverbal, written,
visual and/or multi-modal forms of communication, focusing on the construction of shared
meaning. CM courses combine the study of communication theory and/or disciplinary ways of
knowing with hands-on practice. These courses engage students in the production of critical
thinking and analysis, argumentation, and other communicative acts that enrich human
relationships, and that ground the knowledge-making practices and methods within our
professions, disciplines and/or the public sphere. While all General Education courses have
communicative and reasoning elements, CM courses center specifically on the systematic study
and production of communication and reasoning as generalizable human activities or within
epistemologies specific to a discipline.

Course Learning Outcomes

Some of the specific objectives of this course, then, are as follows:
 Identify and apply key principles in, and obstacles to, clear-reasoning, argument-analysis
and argument-creation
 Gain comprehensive knowledge of the forms and methods of argument analysis, through
argument critique (breaking-down of arguments), and diagramming
 Analyze and Use various formats of argument-communication, including academic, editorial,
conversational, scientific, statistical, and other.
 Identify, Analyze and Evaluate the inductive and deductive foundations of reasoning
methods and knowledge claims within sciences and other fields of knowledge
production: the role of empiricism, first principles, falsifiability, assumptions and paradigms,
etc.
 Analyze and evaluate inductive arguments: causal reasoning, generalizations, probability,
statistical and analogical reasoning
 Apply Aristotelian theories of syllogistic logic as they perform logical tests for validity and
soundness, using Venn Diagrams and other forms of validity testing.
 Identify logical fallacies that distort, deceive, or that weaken arguments. Recognize
ambiguous, presumptuous, irrelevant and other discursive and logical manipulations, in their
own arguments and in others.
 Analyze how disciplinary knowledges are affected by the discursive schema of spheres
outside of their discipline, and explore strategies for communication and debate between
disciplines, methodologies and spheres.
 Identify and analyze issues and discourses from a variety of points of view, and with
different methodologies
 Integrate models of argumentation within their own disciplinary studies, professional
arenas, and public life.
 Deconstruct and analyze the logical (and illogical) dimensions of argument, and integrate
these skills in the formulation and evaluation of their own arguments.
 Strengthen their ability to hear, understand and respond cogently and critically to those
ideas and positions encountered in everyday life, in the classroom, and in the public sphere
 Develop habits of mind that will enable them to effectively participate in public and
professional life with those who differ in perspectives and positions on important issues.

A NOTE ON CLASS STRUCTURE

Class structure will reflect the above-stated goals. Class participation and interaction will be an
extremely important part of the learning process. There will be a lot of group workshops,
hands-on activities, “mock courts” or similar types of debate-exercises, small and large group
discussion, engagement with private, public and professional methods and issues, long term
group projects, presentations, etc. In general, let me just say that in this course you will learn
by doing.

Required Texts: Waller, Bruce N. Critical Thinking: Consider the Verdict. 6th
Edition. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2012).

Additional Readings and Handouts Packet for PHIL 1250

Other sources on Canvas, as needed

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

Daily Assignments (10%) (10 @ 1 pt each)

I will often assign exercises for you to have completed for each class meeting. You only need
to do ten of these throughout the course of the semester. Some of these assignments will
come from the textbook, but others will be explained on our Canvas site. These exercises are
designed to provide opportunities for you to connect our course ideas and skills to examples
drawn from public, personal and/or professional life. There are no make-ups or late turn-
ins. If you know you will be missing class, you must nevertheless turn in the HW before class
time to get credit for it. There are a lot of HW assignments to choose from, and you only have
to turn in ten, so you can choose strategically to skip many of them.

Spotlight Activities (30%) (6 @ 5 pts each)

See the Readings and Assignments Schedule for Due Dates for each of these Unit Activities.
 Late Policy: penalty of 1 point for every day late.

The Spotlight Types:

Argument Diagramming Spotlight - 10% (2 @ 5 pts each)
For each of these TWO assignments, you will find an argument in the news or similar
location (letters to the editor, or editorials, or news commentaries are good places to look,
but also public speeches, legal cases, or the like), and diagram and analyze it. To do so,
you will break down the argument using the steps of argument analysis learned in class to
that point, and then visually represent it the methods you’ve learned. Attention will be paid
to underlying values and assumptions, principles of good reasoning, Logical structure and
effective response and intellectual engagement. (Note: These will lay some of the
groundwork to your semester-long projects by selecting arguments that are about your
group’s selected topic. (see Signature Assignment below))

Critical Insight and/or Fallacy Spotlight - 10% (2 @ 5 pts ea.)

For each of these TWO assignments, you will create a poster, flyer, video, or other
multimedia/creative presentation of a chosen fallacy, or on a specific concept or reasoning-
insight you’d like to spotlight. The idea here is to *spotlight* one: really show it off. Define
and explain it, give examples, use words and images to present your selected fallacy/bias.
These assignments provide an opportunity for you to engage other talents, skills,
knowledges and interests you may have: Studying film? Make a video. A biology major?
Find examples of fallacies that occur within or in response to the biological sciences.
Addicted to social media? Create a Facebook survey. Etc.
 Field-Reasoning Spotlight - 10% (2 @ 5 pts):
For this assignment, you will create a video, poster, or other multimedia/creative
presentation aimed at exploring the types of reasoning and communication methodologies
and discourses exercised within a discipline or field, in your personal life, and/or in the
public sphere. You can choose to explore the reasoning in your own major or within an
academic area that interests you. You can choose to look at a social institution, like a non-
profit or a legal institution or the like. You can choose to look at scientific reasoning in and
beyond scientific spheres. The idea here is to think about how decisions and knowledge get
made in these areas. How do people come to make claims and persuade? Do they use
inductive or Deductive reasoning? Do they rely on unquestioned assumptions? What kinds
of discourse/language is used and expected? What kinds of reasoning/discourse would not
be compelling or persuasive in that field? And so forth.

Spotlight/Group Project Presentations (6%) (2 @ 3 pts each)

There are three presentation days over the course of the semester. On those days, you will get
an opportunity to present the highlights of what you and/or your group have worked on.
There will be sign-up sheets for this. These should be professionally prepared. But they don’t
need to be overly in-depth. Plan for about a 5-10 minute presentation. (If you sign up and no-
show, you can reschedule (if there’s another presentation-day on the schedule), but you lose 1
point)
 Group Presentation: For this one, you present as a group the topic you’ve selected
(se Signature Assignment below), the research and majors steps of argument analysis
you’ve done so far, and the major areas that your responses will be focused on (think of
this presentation as a work-in-progress presentation: a what-you’ve-done-and-what-
you-still-need-to-do presentation. The hope is that your fellow classmates can give you
some ideas or help you to orient your efforts.
 Individual Presentation on a Spotlight: For this one, you present a Unit Spotlight
you’ve done. It can be on any of the Spotlight types you choose. (see below)

Signature Assignment (10%)

Special Issue - Argument Analysis and Response 10% (1 @ 10 pts):
Working in three stages throughout the semester, for this assignment, you will work in groups
to find, analyze and evaluate arguments about a current or perennial issue. Your group can
choose to evaluate the arguments in a legal case, or a political debate, or a hot topic in your
professional field or major, or in public policy. Whichever topic you choose, As a group, you
will: research and select model arguments for both (or multiple) sides of the debate, go through
the steps of argument analysis, diagram the arguments you have selected. As an individual,
you will write an overall evaluation and response, using learned strategies and principles of
effective response, to communicate your analysis and reasoned position to a chosen audience
for persuasive purposes and/or problem-solving/resolution recommendations. This response
will be submitted on Canvas along with your 1) steps of argument analysis, 2) the argument
diagrams, and 3) the original arguments. Please note: There are detailed instructions and
guidelines on our Canvas course site for each stage of the assignment.
 Late policy: penalty of 1 point for each day it is late.
ePortfolio. (5%)
All General Education classes at SLCC—including this one—require that you upload “Signature
Assignments” to a “General Education ePortfolio” that you create. A Gen-Ed Portfolio is a kind
of academic/professional website where you upload key assignments from your General
Education classes, and reflect on those assignments and the class (like, for instance, how they
connect to other general education courses and your career/education/life). In our class, you
will be uploading your Signature Assignment, as well as two of your five Spotlight assignments.
Your ePortfolio should include four elements:
1) a reflection essay (expect to write at least two substantive paragraphs) that attends
to at least two of the question-sets I have provided for you, and introduces the contents
of your ePortfolio page.
2) your uploaded Signature Assignment, with an explanation of the assignment and
what you and your group worked on.
3) Two “Unit Spotlights” Assignments, each with an explanation about what the
assignment was, and what you did.
4) attention to visual presentation and professional appearance of your PHIL 1250 page
of your ePortfolio.
You can find instructions and guidelines on our course’s Canvas site, under Signature
Assignment Resources folder, and under the Assignments tab in the left column of the course’s
main page. When I grade your ePortfolio, I will be evaluating it according to a rubric which
considers the quality of your reflection essay, your uploaded assignments and their
explanations, and the general formatting and aesthetics of the PHIL 1250 page of your
ePortfolio. Your ePortfolio can be submitted in after the due date, for a late penalty,
but only up until the end of finals week.

Exams (34%) (3 @ 10 points each).

There will be THREE exams during the semester, which will pull together all material from each
major section of class (non-cumulative). The best strategies I can suggest for consistently
performing well on these exams are to stay caught up with the readings, do homework, attend
class, and ask questions on material you don’t understand. Also, come see me during my office
hours if you are encountering sections that are particularly difficult for you to grasp.
Sometimes one-on-one tutorials can make all the difference.
 Missed Exam Policy: If you miss an exam, you will need a doctor’s note, or other
acceptable documentation, in order to be eligible to take a make-up. If you foresee a
problem with the exam-schedule (or, indeed, the quiz-schedule) (for instance, you know
you will need to be out of town for your job, or something), then you must make
arrangements with me for an alternate time to take the exam, and you must make those
arrangements BEFORE THE DATE OF THE EXAM. Otherwise, you cannot take a make-
up.

Participation (10%).
This is a discussion- and workshop-oriented class, so participation is expected and required. I
understand that people participate in different ways—some are quieter than others, some write
furious notes, some write few, and so forth. But there are some minimal, non-negotiable,
expectations from me—that each brings their text and reads before class, that each engages in
the workshop exercises, that an attempt is made by the quieter ones to offer their perspectives,
that an attempt is made by the confident speakers to include the less confident, and that there
is an appreciation and respect for other viewpoints.

Attendance. This is required. I understand that circumstances come up sometimes, or

maybe you just don't feel like coming to class. That's cool and I can understand that.
Therefore, I give you three free absences to use however you like. Go to a carnival, study for
your biology exam, Whatever. Regardless, however, you only receive those three free ones.
(If you have a bad flu or other medical issue, you can bring in a doctor’s note and it will not
count towards those absences). (If you need to go out of town for work, and have some
documentation for that, let me know beforehand and we can negotiate that as well (obviously,
within reason)).
 How excessive absences effects your grade: After your third un-documented
absence, every further absence results in a lowering of your final grade by a “1/3” (i.e. A
to A- to B+ to B to B-, etc.).
 Lateness policy: Additionally, you must arrive to class on time. Two "Lates" equal an
absence, so be careful to arrive on time. ("Late" equals five minutes late).
 Important Note: One more thing on attendance: if you miss a class, the responsibility
for turning in assignments on time, getting caught up on readings, staying aware of
scheduling changes, acquiring class handouts and notes, getting documentation to me,
making alternate arrangements, and so forth, is entirely on you.

Grade Breakdown Total Point Values

HW Assignments (10@1pt) 10 A 94-101
Unit Spotlights (5@5 pts) 30 A- 90-93
Presentations (2@3pts) 6 B+ 87-89
Tests (2@12 pts, 1@10) 30 B 84-86
Signature Assignment 10 B- 80-83
ePortfolio 5 C+ 77-79
Participation 10 C 74-76
___x C- 70-73
Total 101 D 60-69
E 0-59