This Subject Includes

  • Course No: HS 552
  • Course: MA in Liberal Arts
  • Semester: I
  • Title: Critical Reasoning
  • Stream:
  • Preamble / Objectives (Optional):

    A course in logical reasoning should impart to the students the necessary skills to engage in reasoning

    through real world cases. With this aim in mind, the course will introduce the models of correct reasoning,

    both deductive and ampliative, and also dwell on their respective strengths and shortcomings. It will

    supplement this with an overview of commonly encountered fallacies and biases. The skills developed

    during the course will be put to use to evaluate real world cases of public reasoning, including diagnosing

    fake news and echo chambers.

     

    Course Content/ Syllabus:

    Basic concepts: epistemology, arguments, truth, validity, soundness, strength; Language: words and

    meanings, intension and extension of terms, definitional techniques; Deductive reasoning: propositional

    logic, categorical reasoning; Inductive reasoning: generalization, analogies, inference to the best

    explanation; Fallacies: formal, informal, biases; Philosophy and critical thinking: moral reasoning, public

    reasoning, epistemology of fake news and echo chambers.

     

    Books (In case UG compulsory courses, please give it as “Text books” and “Reference books”. Otherwise

    give it as “References”.

    Texts: (Format: Authors, Book Title in Italics font, Volume/Series, Edition Number, Publisher, Year.)

    1. L. Vaughn, The Power of Critical Thinking, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005

    References: (Format: Authors, Book Title in Italics font, Volume/Series, Edition Number, Publisher, Year.)

    1. C. Howson and P. Urbach, Scientific Reasoning, Open Court, 2006

    2. I. M. Copi, Symbolic Logic, Prentice-Hall of India, 2012

    3. P. Lipton, Inference to the Best Explanation, Routledge, 2004