Description:
COURSE OBJECTIVES:
To familiarise students with logic, syllogisms, the concepts of validity and truth, and logical fallacies; with different types of information sources and methods for assessing their reliability; and with psychological insights into cognitive biases and ways of recognising bias.
PREREQUISITE COURSES: None
COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES:
1. Apply logical reasoning (syllogisms).
2. Recognise and avoid logical fallacies.
3. Assess the reliability of information based on its source and content.
4. Recognise and avoid cognitive biases.
5. Develop a logical argument on a given topic.
LEARNING OUTCOMES OF THE STUDY PROGRAM TO WHICH THE LEARNING OUTCOMES OF THIS COURSE CONTRIBUTE:
5. Gather information from a range of sources.
15. Develop a work ethic, personal responsibility and a commitment to further professional development.
COURSE CONTENT BY UNITS OR WEEKS:
1. Implicit knowledge: how do we know what we know?
2. Cause-and-effect relationships and correlations.
3. Logic, syllogisms and arguments.
4. Logical fallacies and hidden premises.
5. From information to knowledge to wisdom.
6. ?False friends? and literal translation from foreign languages.
7. Reliable and unreliable sources of information on the internet.
8. Assessing the reliability of information found online.
9. The distinction between collaboration and cheating; the use of sources and plagiarism.
10. The use of artificial intelligence.
11. Types of cognitive bias.
12. Critical analysis of three example texts.
13?15. Developing a logical argument on a given topic based on several sources, including an assessment of their reliability and possible logical fallacies and biases.
MODES OF INSTRUCTION: Lectures, seminars and independent assignments.
STUDENT OBLIGATIONS:
Students are required to attend seminars and complete and submit all independent assignments set during the semester.
MONITORING OF STUDENTS? WORK: Attendance, participation in classes, written examination, oral examination, project, continuous assessment and written assignment.
GRADING AND ASSESSMENT DURING CLASS AND ON THE FINAL EXAM:
Students who obtain at least 60 points are exempt from the examination and receive a final grade according to the grading scale given below. A maximum of 100 points can be obtained in the course. Assessment is based on independent assignments, worth a maximum of 40 points; critical analysis of texts, worth a maximum of 30 points; and development of a logical argument, worth a maximum of 30 points.
Independent assignments: maximum 40 points; 30 points required to pass.
Critical analysis of texts: maximum 30 points; 15 points required to pass.
Development of a logical argument: maximum 30 points; 15 points required to pass.
TOTAL: 100 points; 60 points required to pass.
If a student does not pass the course through the above-mentioned activities, they may sit an examination consisting of a written and an oral component. A minimum of 60% of the available marks must be obtained in the written component in order to proceed to the oral component.
The final grade is determined on the basis of the total number of points obtained out of a maximum of 100:
Satisfactory (2) 60?69
Good (3) 70?84
Very good (4) 85?94
Excellent (5) 95?100
MANDATORY LITERATURE:
D. Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 2001, selected chapters.
G. Petrović, Logika, secondary-school textbook, Školska knjiga, Zagreb, 1980, and Element, 2004.
QUALITY ASSURANCE METHODS THAT ENSURE THE ACQUISITION OF OUTPUT KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND COMPETENCES:
Student surveys, analysis of student performance in the course, and surveys conducted through the e-learning system.
