EGL 220: Critical Thinking, VMU, December 20-31, 2021

Important Links

Syllabus

Textbook: Critical Thinking, a Student’s Introduction, Basham, et al (please see ISE for a link)

email me! jchisholm@csum.edu

Xin Chao! Welcome to our Class!

• Day 10: Exam #2

  Happy New Year!

• Day 9: The Social Dilemma (documentary)

  Take the social media survey

  Also, here’s a useful chart listing American media sources and their bias rankings, according to the ad fontes media group.

• Day 8: Logical Fallacies, part 2

  

  Today’s notes.

  1. Inappropriate appeals to authority:

  —Source is not a genuine authority

  —Source is biased

  —Accuracy of the source’s observations is questionable

  —The source cited is known to be generally unreliable

  —The source has been cited incorrectly or the claim taken out of context

  —The source’s claim conflicts with expert opinion

  —The issue can’t be settled by expert opinion

  –The assertion is false or highly improbable on its face (see “Bat Baby” tabloid)

  2. False alternatives. Another example.

  3. Appeal to ignorance

  4. Loaded question

  5. Questionable cause:

  —post hoc

  —mere correlation

  —oversimplified cause

  6. Hasty generalization

  7. Slippery Slope.

  8. Weak Analogy

  9. Inconsistency

• Day 7: Logical Fallacies, part 1

  

  1. Notes from today’s lecture
  2. Some examples:
     • Ad hominem
     • Attacking the motive
     • Look who’s talking
     • Two wrongs make a right Also this one.
     • Appeal to pity (caveat: these are not always bad)
     • Bandwagon argument (direct)
     • Bandwagon argument (indirect)
     • Straw man
     • Red herring
     • Equivocation
     • Begging the question (simple)
     • Begging the question (circular reasoning)

  Cool infographic with more!

• Day 6: Exam

• Day 5: Inductive Reasoning

  1. Notes for today
  2. Exercise: p. 82, III
  3. Exercise: p. 83, IV
  4. Exam on Monday!

• 

  Day 4: Deductive Reasoning

  1. Oh my goodness [exclamation], this is also complicated [assertion]! Let’s split Chapter 3 over two days: today we’ll talk about Deductive Reasoning.
  2. My notes for today.
  3. Exercise
  4. What is a valid or sound argument? Here’s a video.
  5. Validity exercise: p. 73, 3.4
  6. Soundness exercise: p. 82, II

  Homework for tomorrow: read about inductive arguments in chapter 3.

• Day 3: Recognizing Arguments

  1. Today’s notes
  2. What is a statement? Statement or not exercise
  3. What do all of these words mean in Chapter 2?
  4. Yikes! Is there a simpler way to understand these concepts? Yes.
  5. Your personal arguments exercise
  6. Let’s talk about assertion, rhetoric and the rhetorical situation. Video. (Play until 15:38, then skip to 19.59)
  7. Questions about today? Ask here.

  Homework: Read Chapter 3, and make sure you have the book for tomorrow’s class.

• Day 2: No Such Thing as Truth

  

  1. Discuss politicalcompass.org results
  2. Look at Chapter 1 ideas and your questions
  3. Mental disequilibrium cartoon (handout from yesterday)
  4. Glancing versus observing cartoon
  5. Embracing paradox cartoon
  6. Quotes about truth
  7. Truth, facts and reality
  8. Facts and social pressure
  9. Exercise (if we have time)

  Homework: Read Chapter 2 in CTIS and be ready to ask questions about it tomorrow.

• Day 1: Monday, December 19: Deconstructing the Self

  Xin Chao!  My name is Dr. Julie Chisholm.  I’m a professor of Culture and Communication at the California State University, Maritime Academy.  I’ll be your instructor for critical thinking, an important course in your college experience.  This short semester, we will first define critical thinking, and look at ways we both encourage and discourage it in our lives.  Then we will go into the gym:  a mental gym, that is, in which we work out with our brains.  We will use a tool called rhetorical analysis, the study of argument, to help get our critical thinking muscles into shape.  Along the way, we’ll look at a current event—in this case, the Covid-19 pandemic, and the arguments made around it.  Ideally, you will learn a few things:  not just about the pandemic, but about yourself and the way you think.  Welcome to our class!

  Critical thinking is a purposeful mental activity. ‘Critical’ means to take something apart and analyze it on the basis of standards.” –Michael Baker, Basics of Critical Thinking

  This website: drjuliekaui.com. Bookmark it!

  Introductions!

  What is your name? Have you picked up any new interests or skills during the pandemic? or Which is your favorite character in the Marvel Multiverse? (Mine is Loki)

  Discussion Packet: Deconstructing the Self

  Habits of Critical Thinking Survey

  Ever wondered what the two major American political parties are all about? Here’s a handy infographic.

  Take another at Political Compass and put your plotted dot here.

  Homework: Read Chapter 1 of CTIE (see ISE for a link to this doc), and answer these questions before class begins tomorrow.