Lahore University of Management Sciences

PHIL 133 Critical Thinking

Spring 2016-17
Instructor Shabbir Ahsen
Room No. New SS Wing
Office Hours TBA
Email sahsen@lums.edu.pk
Telephone
Secretary/TA
TA Office
Hours
Course URL (if
any)

Course Basics
Credit Hours 3
Lecture(s) Nbr of Lec(s) Per Duration 75 minutes each
Week
Recitation/Lab (per Nbr of Lec(s) Per NA Duration
week) Week
Tutorial (per week) Nbr of Lec(s) Per NA Duration
Week

Course Distribution
Core
Elective *
Open for Student All
Category
Close for Student None
Category

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course is an introduction to informal reasoning and how to critically analyze issues across disciplines. Topics
to be covered include: recognizing arguments and components thereof, reconstructing and analyzing arguments,
deductive and inductive reasoning, discovering fallacies, and so on. The course will help students to read and
analyze academic material more critically thereby helping them better organize their own work in order to
produce defensible arguments.

COURSE PREREQUISITE(S)

None
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COURSE OBJECTIVES

Students will learn a variety of technical notions and skills for applying them. The main objectives are to enhance
the capacity to conduct critical inquiry and develop reading and writing skills to be successful in academic and
professional environments.

Learning Outcomes

After completing this course students should be able to recognize arguments, identify their salient components,
arrange them in a standard logical form, identify their types, detect potential fallacies, and evaluate their strength.

Grading Breakup and Policy

Attendance: 10%
Quizzes: 20%
Practice exercises: 20%
Group assignments: 20%
Midterm: 30%

Examination Detail

Midterm exam: yes

Final exam: no
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COURSE OVERVIEW
Recommended
Topics
Readings

Introduction

Introducing arguments
Bowell and Kemp, Ch. 1
Recognizing premises and
conclusions

Distinguishing arguments from

explanations

Language and rhetoric Bowell and Kemp, Ch. 2

(Ambiguity, vagueness, rhetorical

ploys)

Logic: deductive validity and Bowell and Kemp, Ch. 3

soundness

Logic:
inductive force Bowell and Kemp, Ch. 4
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Argument reconstruction
Bowell and Kemp, Ch. 5
(Implicit and explicit premises,
connecting premises, intermediate
conclusions, explanations as
conclusions)

Argument assessment
Bowell and Kemp, Ch. 6
(Rational persuasiveness, refutation
by counterexamples)

Pseudo-reasoning
Bowell and Kemp, Ch. 7
Fallacies and their debunking

Truth and relativity

Bowell and Kemp, Ch. 8
Belief, justification and truth

Knowledge

Critical analysis of texts

Textbook(s)/Supplementary Readings

Primary:
Bowell, T. and Kemp, G. 2010. Critical Thinking: A Concise Guide. NY: Routledge.

Supplementary:
Fogelin, R. and Sinnot-Armstrong, W. 2010. Understanding Arguments: An Introduction to Informal Logic. CA:
Wadsworth.

Cottrell, S. 2005. Critical Thinking Skills. NY: Palgrave Macmillan.