What makes some arguments better than others? Consider the following
bit of reasoning: “There has never been intelligent life on Mars.
This is because if satellite photographs show traces of abandoned
towns and cities on the surface of Mars, then there was once
intelligent life on that planet. But unfortunately, the photos show
no sign of abandoned towns or cities on the surface of the planet.”
What is the structure of this argument? Why should this argument
fail to persuade you of the truth of its conclusion? In other words,
why isn’t the above argument a good one? This course will explore
such questions by introducing students to the basic elements of
informal logic. Our main focus will be the recognition, analysis,
and evaluation of everyday arguments using methods from informal
logic. Students will learn how to identify arguments and their
structure; detect informal fallacies; test arguments for validity
using informal proofs, counterexamples, and the tableaux test;
diagram complex arguments; and evaluate the overall goodness of an
argument.