ARGUMENTATION COURSE
Mariusz Ozminkowski, Ph.D
www.ozminkowski.com
mozminkowski@csupomona.edu
"Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth; more than ruin, more even than death. Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man." Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)
"The important thing is not to stop questioning; curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when contemplating the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of the mystery every day. The important thing is not to stop questioning; never lose a holy curiosity." Albert Einstein
Course Syllabus
PowerPoint
Presentations:
Textbooks (please see the syllabus for the specific course's requirements)
Buy earlier editions of Rybacki/Rybacki for as little as $1.00 + shipping. See www.directtextbook.com
California Ports: Fears that a new and improved Panama Canal will divert trade. Read in The Economist
Immigration Laws in Alabama. Read in The Economist.
ONLINE RESOURCES
FOR ARGUMENTATION / WRITING / CRITICAL THINKING
INFORMAL LOGIC From The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Logical Fallacies. Basic description
A list of 20 logical fallacies from The Skeptics Guide to the Universe
Research Methods: Knowledge Base Website
The Research Methods Knowledge Base is a comprehensive web-based textbook that addresses all of the topics in a typical introductory undergraduate or graduate course in social research methods. It covers the entire research process including: formulating research questions; sampling (probability and nonprobability); measurement (surveys, scaling, qualitative, unobtrusive); research design (experimental and quasi-experimental); data analysis; and, writing the research paper.
On writing and language: selection of articles, blogs, and websites
Writing Skills Page from FACTMONSTER.com
Better writing: a helpful website from Oxford Dictionaries
Writing Philosophy Essays: Writing Your Essay. From The University of Melbourne, Australia
Purdue Online Writing Lab Website. This website has a list of topics on the writing process, developing arguments, style, etc. Below you will find a small selection. Please see the main page for more.
Starting the Writing Process
Prewriting
Developing an Outline
Paragraphs and Paragraphing
Research: Overview
Evaluating Sources of Information
Creating a Thesis Statement
Establishing Arguments
Logic in Argumentative Writing
Rhetorical Situation
Citation
MLA Overview and Workshop - This workshop will introduce you to the Modern Language Association (MLA) Style for writing and formatting research papers.
APA Formatting and Style Guide - This resource, revised according to the 5th edition of the APA manual, offers examples for the general format of APA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the reference page. APA (American Psychological Association) is most commonly used to cite sources within the social sciences.
The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. Full text online: the early version. It is the most famous book on the subject. It is devoted to teaching the composition of prose clear, crisp, and clean of excess verbiage or tricky syntax, served up in what is called the active voice. Nothing wrong with clean, crisp, and clean prose, or with the active voice, but The Elements of Style is limited in its usefulness, if only because there are more ways of writing well than the ideal advocated by its authors (Joseph Epstein).Classic Texts
Quintilian
Classic texts on mit.edu page
Additional Reading:
Pirie, Madsen. How to Win Every Argument: The Use and Abuse of Logic
Whyte, Jamie. Crimes Against
Logic: Exposing the Bogus Arguments of Politicians, Priests,
Journalists, and Other Serial Offenders
Baillargeon, Normand. A Short
Course in Intellectual Self-Defense: Find Your Inner Chomsky
Capaldi, Nicholas & Miles Smit.
The Art of Deception: An Introduction to Critical Thinking, Fully
Revised and Updated
Pratkanis, Anthony & Aronson, Elliot.
Age of Propaganda: The Everyday
Use and Abuse of Persuasion
Aronson, Elliot.
The Social Animal
Tavris, Carol & Aronson, Elliot.
Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad
Decisions, and Hurtful Acts
AMERICAN FORENSIC ASSOCIATION website
Argumentation: An International Journal on Reasoning
The Philosophy of Science Association (PSA)
The Association for Logic, Language and Information (FoLLI)
Association for Informal Logic & Critical Thinking
The Skeptics Guide to the Universe
Read SkepticBlog
Open Society Foundations
Project Reason
Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science
... and read The Economist for the best journalism in English language
Read:
What Orwell Didn't Know: Propaganda and the New Face of American Politics
Andras Szanto (Ed).
Read excerpts at amazon.com
Wittgenstein's Poker: The Story of a Ten-Minute Argument Between Two Great Philosophers David Edmonds and John Eidinow
NEW BOOK by Richard Dawkins "The Magic of Reality".
Students from The India's Institute of Technology
CBS video
You Tube
Malcolm Gladwell on success