Course

Course Summary
Credit Type:
Course
ACE ID:
SOPH-0065
Organization's ID:
PHIL1005
Organization:
SOPHIA Learning, LLC
Location:
Online
Length:
The course is self-paced, and many learners complete it in 4-8 weeks.
Dates Offered:
Credit Recommendation & Competencies
Level Credits (SH) Subject
Lower-Division Baccalaureate 3 Critical Thinking
Description

Objective:

The course objective is to present learners with an introduction to formal logic that they can apply to writing, assessing resources and articles, listening to news and politics, creating business strategies, and planning projects. The course presents scenarios through media and other activities to allow students to practice critical thinking skills under different circumstances. The course culminates in a project to construct an argument on a moral issue.

Learning Outcomes:

  • Define the characteristics of critical thinking and describe its importance for professional and personal success
  • Analyze and translate more nuanced and complicated forms of argument in natural language, such as those using rhetorical techniques like assuring, guarding, and discounting, and those with hidden premises
  • Use the process of proofs for showing deductive reasoning based on common rules of inference
  • Use diagrams and reasoning to test or prove categorical statements and relational statements
  • Analyze inductive arguments based on laws of probability, both pure probability such as gambling scenarios and those that apply laws of probability to statistical generalizations
  • Describe some of the barriers to good critical thinking, including closed-mindedness and bias
  • Analyze arguments to spot common fallacies, including formal fallacies with logical errors, and informal fallacies that misdirect or include irrelevant information
  • Translate natural language arguments into standard form
  • Evaluate arguments for validity or soundness using non-rigorous techniques
  • Use a more rigorous method for testing arguments for validity
  • Analyze inductive arguments depending on their purpose, including causal reasoning, explanatory reasoning, analogical reasoning, and statistical generalizations
  • Analyze statements for use of hidden premises using evaluative language
  • Engage in moral reasoning based on moral truths and moral duty

General Topics:

  • Critical Thinking
  • Challenges and Barriers to Critical Thinking
  • Fallacies
  • Arguments
  • Quality of Arguments
  • Formal Logic
  • Testing for Validity
  • Constructing Proofs
  • Categorical Logic
  • Inductive Reasoning
  • Probability
  • Moral Reasoning
Instruction & Assessment

Instructional Strategies:

  • Audio Visual Materials
  • Case Studies
  • Computer Based Training
  • Lectures

Methods of Assessment:

  • Examinations
  • Quizzes
  • Written Papers

Minimum Passing Score:

70%
Supplemental Materials

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