An on-campus course offered during the Winter or May term. May be offered for .5 course credits or as a co-curricular (0 credit). Counts toward satisfying the Extended Studies requirement.
Winter Term informationAshley Puzzo
184A: Critical Thinking and Logic Puzzles
Meeting Times: 10am - 1 pm, MTWF
Location: Asbury 201
This course will be an introduction to the study of elementary critical thinking. Focus will be on logical fallacies, syllogistic logic, and elementary probabilistic reasoning including Bayes' Theorem. Course will highlight the use of critical thinking skills in problem solving and will be of use to those preparing for a graduate level examination such as the GRE, GMAT, or LSAT. Coursework: participation, three exams, and a short, 3-5 page critical essay.
184B: Debating Current Events
Course Fees: None
Meeting Times: 1-4pm, MWR; 1-5pm, F
Location: Prindle Center
This course will be an intense ethical debate competition. Each week, students will be divided into teams and given a variety of current event stories to learn about. The goal will be to prepare for a debate style competition to be held at the end of each week. The ethical issues we consider will range across a wide area of topics and disciplines including, contemporary media, personal morality, science and medicine, business, technology, and politics.
Student will learn how to identify ethical issues in current event stories, construct well-reasoned arguments for answers to moral questions these events raise, orally present those arguments in a competitive setting, and judge the quality of someone else's argumentation.
All classes, small group meetings, and debates will be held at The Prindle Institute for Ethics. Transportation will be provided for all students who require it.
Students will have their own individual cases to prepare each week (2-3 cases). For each case a student has been assigned, they must write a brief 3-5 page essay about that case in which they develop and defend an answer to an ethical question about that case. Total writing requirement will be approximately 6-9 short brief argumentative essays.