Course Syllabus

PHIL 1250 Reasoning and Rational Decision-Making

Course Description

This course is designed to help students think through and reason about the information in the world around them using different logical and epistemic theories. These theories and concepts will improve students’ ability to understand and analyze this data so that they can better process and confront the myriad of different problems and issues that plague our contemporary technologically and statistically driven society.

Justification

Data, quantified facts, and statistics are now considered the gold standard in information. Yet many members of our society have not been afforded an adequate opportunity to acquire a critical understanding of the nature of data and statistics, nor are they capable of thinking critically about the data and statistics that shape their daily lives. The goal of this course is to introduce students to the different philosophical methods that can be used to process, understand, and think critically about the data and information that make up their world. The hope is that these tools will provide students with a better understanding of the human experience, of which science and technology have come to make up a vast and integral part.All schools in the USHE system teach a course similar to Reasoning and Rational Decision Making (as Phil 1250). This course fulfills the HU GE requirement. The Humanities are a group of academic disciplines that study the many ways by which humans have attempted to understand themselves and their world. At Snow College, the Humanities focus on cultural traditions that are expressed largely through text or which have a strong textual component: languages, literature, and philosophy. The methods by which the Humanities study culture are at once analytical and interpretive, objective and subjective, historical and aesthetic.

General Education Outcomes

1. A student who completes the GE curriculum has a fundamental knowledge of human cultures and the natural world. Students will engage with philosophical texts in the major areas of logic and epistemology, including deductive, inductive, and informal logic. They will also engage with texts and case studies in, but not limited to, the social, behavioral, physical, and life sciences. They will demonstrate their knowledge and understanding through exams, class discussion, assignments, and projects.
2. A student who completes the GE curriculum can read and research effectively within disciplines. By reading a variety of logical and epistemic arguments as well as a variety of scientific and technological case studies (needed to satisfy 1), students will be able to discuss and analyze the different problems, issues, and concerns that arise in these different situations as well as offer challenges to existing solutions and develop their own understanding and solutions to these problems and issues.
3. A student who completes the GE curriculum can draw from multiple disciplines to address complex problems. This class is, at its core, interdisciplinary. It will start with a thorough discussion of logical systems as ways of assessing and constructing knowledge. This discussion of ways and rules for thinking as well as their epistemic import will not be the end of the discussion. The point is to then apply these tools to the world around them. Students will learn how to draw from philosophy, history, art, science, medicine, math, and engineering in order to construct answers and solve problems. The goal is to use logical and epistemic tools to discuss, analyze, and understand the human experience so that we can deal with current problems that we face as human beings, particularly those problems posed to the human experience by the rise and dominance of science and technology.
4. A student who completes the GE curriculum can reason analytically, critically, and creatively. Students will show that they can think critically and analyze scientific and technological situations and problems to discuss the factual and normative components of these cases. Students will use these discussions to then develop and present their own arguments and assessments of the cases. Instructors will grade assignments based on the students’ ability to analyze, develop, and present their arguments. Instructors will offer feedback to improve students’ analyses and arguments so that they can improve their ability to use logical and epistemic methods to analysis and discuss the facts, values, and policy-components at play as well as their ability to present these issues and ideas in a way that accurately and faithful represents the ideas, concepts, facts, and values here. Instructors will work with students to improve their understanding of the material as well as their ability to reflect on, respond to, and provide solutions for the conundrums that face our contemporary society.
5. A student who completes the GE curriculum can communicate effectively through writing and speaking. Students will engage in a variety of activities, including class discussions and group projects, to critically examine a variety of philosophical positions, many that (most likely) differ from the positions and views that they hold. They will then have to show that they can present their ideas, analyses, and solutions clearly. For example, students might create and present a multimodal project with other members of the class aimed at analyzing a particular problem and apply a philosophical theory as a way of solving it. Instructors will grade assignments and projects for grammar, structure, coherence, language, and concepts used. Instructors will offer feedback on how students can better present their arguments and analysis so that they effectively present, communicate, and defend their ideas.
6. A student who completes the GE curriculum can reason quantitatively.  This class includes a discussion of different logical systems. This will include a discussion of symbolic logic, either deductive, inductive, or both. This discussion of deductive logic, also called symbolic or mathematical logic, and inductive logic will improve student’s ability to reason quantitatively. It can do this by discussing validity and invalidity, truth tables, Venn Diagrams, proof systems, probability theory, Bayesian logic, rational choice theory, game theory, and decision theory.

General Education Knowledge Area Outcomes

1. Through a study of representative contemporary issues and accompanying texts and primary sources, students will be introduced to different logical and rational principles and methodologies, including, but not limited to, deductive logic, inductive logic, informal logic, and formal and informal fallacies. Students will learn how these methods apply to the world around them to inform and solve a variety of different problems that we face in our contemporary technological and scientific world. Students will demonstrate their understanding of these methods as well as ask and explore related philosophical and logical questions.
   
   For example, the class might look at statistical inference, like significance testing, and then discuss the merits and issues of these methods. Finally, the class might apply these different methods to different policies or problems, like the reproducibility crisis in science. Students may propose their own solutions and courses of action in response. Through a study of representative contemporary issues and accompanying texts and primary sources, students will be introduced to different logical and rational principles and methodologies, including, but not limited to, deductive logic, inductive logic, informal logic, and formal and informal fallacies. Students will learn how these methods apply to the world around them to inform and solve a variety of different problems that we face in our contemporary technological and scientific world. Students will demonstrate their understanding of these methods as well as ask and explore related philosophical and logical questions.
   
   For example, the class might look at statistical inference, like significance testing, and then discuss the merits and issues of these methods. Finally, the class might apply these different methods to different policies or problems, like the reproducibility crisis in science. Students may propose their own solutions and courses of action in response.
2. Understand how knowledge is created through the study of language systems, literature, and/or philosophy. Through readings, class discussion, and activities, students will use philosophy and logic to examine the diversity and nature of information, statistics, and data. Students will learn how and when information, statistics, and data constitute knowledge and when and why information and statistics justify different beliefs and actions. Students will then apply these skills to the world around them by using the tools they developed to engage with the scientific, medical, and technological world they inhabit. Students will demonstrate these abilities through written assignments, exams, and group and individual projects.
   
   For example, the professor might discuss the nature of argumentation. The class might look at a variety of arguments to determine whether they are valid or not. Students might then apply these lessons to various cases to assess the soundness of the reasoning there. Then, students might suggest ways to improve or repair the invalid arguments that they find.
   
3. Understand cultural traditions within an historical context and make connections with the present. By reading and discussing the origins and historical development of our contemporary scientific and technologic society and the plurality of different logical and epistemic tools that allow us to understand and navigate that world, students will show that they can critically engage with the information, data, and statistics in the world around them so that they can better understand their lives and the nature of our current human situation. Students will demonstrate this critical engagement through class discussions, assignments, and group and individual projects.
4. Critically read and respond to primary texts (original, uninterpreted) from a Humanities’ perspective. Students will be able to read, interpret, analyze, and respond to contemporary scientific, medical, and technologic case studies. Class discussion, assignments, and projects will allow students to demonstrate their ability to read critically in order to understand, explain, analyze, and apply logical and epistemic tools to these cases, problems, and situations.
5. Write effectively within the Humanities discipline to analyze and form critical and aesthetic judgments. Students will be able to use the logical and epistemic tools developed in this class to write and analyze the technologic and scientific problems and dilemmas that they face as contemporary members of our society. In doing so, students will show that they can construct arguments that utilize the logical and epistemic tools discussed in class to develop strong arguments with textual and statistical support that show critical thinking and logical and epistemic nuance.
   
   For example, students may use the epistemic and logical tools discussed in class to analyze, assess, and solve different technological problems and issues. Students could write case studies of their own by looking at a contemporary problem of their own creation and using the theories, concepts, and tools developed from class to assess and analyze the problem.
   

Course Content

Utilizing the pedagogical methods discussed, the class will cover a variety of logical methods, including deductive logic, informal logic, inductive logic, and the different theories of knowledge, justification, and inference therein. Course content will offer students the opportunity to see philosophical concepts and theories from various authors and ethnic, national, gender, regional, and economic perspectives addressing and engaging with a wide set of questions, methods, issues, and problems.