A newspaper editorial tries to convince you that taxpayers should pay for a new baseball stadium. A magazine advertisement tells you that a particular product is safe, affordable, and necessary to your well-being. Artists defend as art those same creations that legislators want to censor. Political candidates present their reasons for supporting specific tax reform proposals. Scientists debate the public-policy implications of genetic engineering.
Lawyers provide counter arguments for affirmative action programs.
Philosophy texts present competing positions on whether animals have rights. What all these sources of information have in common is that they present requests, reasons, arguments and exhortations to believe, accept, or do this or that. Making reflective decisions about such information is a central and unavoidable aspect of our daily existence. This course is a philosophy course on critical thinking. By learning a variety of skills and applying them in diverse disciplinary contexts, we will learn how to think critically and philosophically about a wide variety of contemporary social issues.