100

The course concerns the study and practice of critical thinking through analysis of issues in theoretical philosophy, applied philosophy, and the public sphere more generally. By applying critical thinking skills to controversial issues and dramatic examples, students will engage in careful thought and hone their analytic skills. The primary feature of the course is the consideration of an abundance of issues, examples, and applications from philosophy and everyday life, ranging from human nature to the courtroom and political debate, and from advertising to current moral and social issues.

Discussion of some central problems in philosophy such as the existence of God, the ultimate nature of reality, the conditions for knowledge, the question of free will versus determinism, and the foundations of morality. How should one live? Why would God allow evil? How much can we know about the world around us? Do we have free will? Can we survive death? Such questions are universal and fundamental to all humanity.

The development of formal systems of propositional and predicate logic for the evaluation of reasoning. Truth table techniques to distinguish valid from fallacious inferences, symbolizing English in logical notation, proofs in propositional logic, predicate logic with quantifiers.