PHI1025F - Critical Thinking

Course Outline:

Why do we value our beliefs? We value them because we take them to be true and, as true, they are good guides. But how can we tell when a belief is true? Our only handle here is whether or not the belief is justified. So we aim to have beliefs that are justified. The course concentrates on the practical business of appraising justifications. Of course, we all routinely attempt to justify our beliefs and arrive at new beliefs on the basis of supposed justifications. But almost as routinely we are hoodwinked. The course aims to make students better believers by making them more aware of the nature of justification, of the different sorts of justification and the pitfalls of each. At the end of it they will be less gullible and more able to explain just why a particular argument does or doesn't convince them.