Teaching Argument Evaluation in An Introductory Philosophy Course Essay

Teaching Argument Evaluation in An Introductory Philosophy Course abstract entity One of the greatest challenges in teaching an introductory philosophy course is convincing students that there are, indeed, reliable standards for the evaluation of purposes. Too often introductory students criticise an argument simply by contesting the truth of one of its claims. And far too often, the only claim in an argument that meets serious objections is its conclusion. For many students, the idea that an argument displays a social organisation which can be evaluated on its own terms is not very difficult to arrive at. Unfortunately, the idea is grasped only in an abstract way, with short wonder of how structural problems manifest themselves in concrete arguments, and without the vocabulary for formulating structural criticisms. But this paper is not simply about teaching logic, it is about pedagogy. Our trade union movement is to instill in the student the habit of clear thinking. When we send our students out into the world, we have to ensure that they are prepared for it.IntroductionOne of the greatest challenges in teaching an introductory philosophy course is convincing students that there are, indeed, reliable standards for the evaluation of arguments. Too often introductory students criticise an argument simply by contesting the truth of one of its claims. And far too often the only claim in an argument that meets serious objections is its conclusion. For many students, the idea that an argument displays a structure which can be evaluated on its own terms is not very difficult to grasp unfortunately, the idea is grasped only in an abstract way, with insufficient appreciation of how structural problems manifest themselves in concrete arguments, ... ... extended arguments can be explained in terms of sufficiency, a concept that the student can easily grasp by seeing how a proposition presented as belonging to one of the linked arguments may also be employed as a premise in another of the arguments.Assignments Several chain syllogisms.Session 6This session should be devoted to the examination of the limitations of term logic. It has proved useful to consider aboveboard arguments that make use of very basic truth-functional logic (modus ponens, modus tollens, and the hypothetical syllogism are easily enough explained). While these can usually be translated without too a great deal effort into the form of a categorical syllogism, the awkwardness of doing so is clearly prohibitive. At this point, however, the battle is already won. The students are actively engaged in the dianoetic analysis and evaluation of arguments.