Philosophy. Study the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality and existence.

This philosophy course aims to develop your critical thinking skills through practical sessions and the study of informal logic techniques. We will learn the basics of a good argument and evaluate the reasons why arguments go wrong. We will work through practical exercises and evaluate examples from everyday life.

Aims

The aim of the course is to provide you with an understanding of how to construct a clear and persuasive argument, and to assess the clarity of arguments.

Outcomes

By the end of this course, you should be able to:

• understand of the structure of arguments
• construct a good argument yourself
• critically assess the arguments of others.

Content

Introduction to critical thinking

We will discuss various concepts and ideas.

Elements of an argument

An argument may be very simple, with only a single premise and a conclusion, or it may be composed of a convoluted series of premises and sub conclusions. One technique for working out the relationship between the different elements of an argument is to reconstruct it in the form of a structure diagram. We will discuss a variety of examples associated with this technique.

Language and definitions

The problem with an argument is often because of it's lack of clarity or p