PHIL 1010 Georgia State University Fall 2008Critical Thinking Department of Philosophy George RainboltCRN 82845 34 Peachtree St., Suite 1100TR 11-11:50 Revised August 19, 2008CONTACT INFOEmail: [email protected] (preferred method of contact)Telephone: 404-413-6109 Office: Room 1119, 34 Peachtree St.Office Hours: M-F 9-4:30 These are the hours I am on campus. Unless I am in a meeting, I will be in my office. But my life has too many meetings so it is best to email in advance for an appointment.COURSE FOCUS AND OBJECTIVESThe primary focus of Phil 1010 will be the improvement of those critical thinkingskills needed for other college courses. Critical thinking is the skill of recognizing,composing and evaluating arguments. Virtually every college course relies on arguments.Examples include: arguments about business plans, arguments about the qualities of anovel, arguments about the significance of historical events, arguments about the natureand function of genetic material, to name just a few.The objectives of this course are: to improve your ability to evaluate arguments,to improve your ability to construct arguments, and to improve your ability to presentarguments in written form. Because arguments are found in all your other courses, doingwell in this course should greatly increase your chances for successfully completing thecore curriculum, courses required by your major, and graduating with a bachelor’sdegree.N.B. This course provides a background in critical thinking, including some ofthe methods of understanding arguments that are useful for many fields of study,including philosophy. However, this course is not an introduction to philosophy and itdoes not focus on the questions discussed in most philosophy classes (for example,ethical questions, the existence of the will, the nature of knowledge, the history ofphilosophical ideas, etc.). For an introduction to philosophy, students are encouraged totake Philosophy 2010 (Great Questions of Philosophy). This course (Philosophy 1010) isnot required to take Philosophy 2010.1REMINDERS1. Check your schedule on GoSOLAR today. You must be registered for the correct CRNto receive credit for this course. 2. EMAIL: Email is a primary means of communication for this course. You shouldcheck your official Georgia State email at least once every 24 hours. Student emailwebsite: https://www.student.gsu.edu2.1 Email is also the quickest and preferred method of contacting me outside ofclass time. By University policy, instructors must use your official Georgia Statestudent email address for all correspondence. If you sent an email from a non-GSU email account, I cannot respond or confirm receipt.2.2. If you email me from your GSU account and have not received a reply within48 hours, you should assume that I did not receive the message, in which case youshould contact me in person. 2.3. If you turn in any assignment by email, it is solely your responsibility tomake sure I received it on time. If I do not receive it on time and in a readableform, you will not get credit for the assignment without time-stamped email proofthat you sent it at the time it was due. Having trouble with your email or computerwill not counteract late penalties.2.4. In addition, you are responsible for any material or assignment information Isend to your GSU email address.3. The FINAL EXAM for this course is a SATURDAY common exam. See below formore information.REQUIRED TEXT AND OTHER MATERIALSCritical Thinking in College, 3rd custom edition, Rainbolt & Dwyer, ISBN 1-4266-44345. Neither the authors of this textbook nor any unit of Georgia State University receiveany money from the sales of this book. The authors have waived their royalties inorder to reduce the students' cost for the book. Other handouts available in class or sent by email.GRADING COMPONENTSFirst Essay 100Second Essay 100Midterm 100Final Exam 100Miscellaneous 100Miscellaneous is divided 50% each for quizzes and exercises.2GRADING SCALEAssignments in this class are scored on a scale from 1 to 100. Scores transfer to pointscale and letter grades as follows: A 4.00 93 - 100A- 3.67 90 - 92B+ 3.33 86 - 89B 3.00 83 - 85B- 2.67 80 - 82C+ 2.33 76 - 79C 2.00 73 - 75C- 1.67 70 - 72D 1.00 60 - 69F 0.00 0 - 59Supplemental Note on Grading:To pass the course, students must earn an overall average of 60, in addition to1. Earning a grade of 60 or better on at least one test (that is, if you do not pass either themidterm or the final exam, you will fail the course regardless of your other grades).2. Completing the final exam and the second essay (that is, if you do not take the finalexam, or do not turn in the second essay, you will fail the course regardless of your othergrades).3. Complete some ungraded assignments such as locating specific types of arguments inother textbooks.4. I reserve the right to withdraw any student who, prior to October 1, 2008, misses morethan 2 classes, turns in fewer than 2 exercises, or takes fewer than 2 quizzes. COMMON FINAL EXAMThe final exam for this course is a common final. In other words, all students inall sections of Phil 1010 will take the same exam. The final exam is on Saturday,December 6 2008, at 3pm, in a classroom to be announced. Students are expected toarrange their schedules to attend this exam. To request an exception, you must submit aVariance Request Form before Friday, September 19, 2008, in order to have sufficienttime for approval to be granted or denied before the midpoint (last day to withdraw). Seeme to request a copy of this form. Exceptions are granted only for those whose religiousholy day is on Saturday, for those who have a registrar documented conflicting finalexam (that is, your transcript proves that you are registered for another course with thesame common final exam time), or for those who have an athletic departmentdocumented conflicting GSU-sponsored athletic event (that is, you are an athlete on aGSU sports team which is scheduled for an out-of-town game at the time of the commonfinal exam). End-of-term travel plans and other social events are not granted a variance.The final exam or those who do qualify for variance will be held on Friday, December 5,2008 at 1pm in the Philosophy Department 11th floor Conference Room, at 34 PeachtreeSt.3QUIZZESSome class meetings will begin with a quiz. The quizzes will last 3 minutes and will becomposed of two multiple choice questions which cover the reading assigned for thatday's class. The