PHI103 Week 1 – Discussion
Your initial discussion thread is due on Day 3 (Thursday) and you have until Day 7 (Monday) to respond to your classmates. Your grade will reflect both the quality of your initial post and the depth of your responses. Refer to the Discussion Forum Grading Rubric under the Settings icon above for guidance on how your discussion will be evaluated.
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Standard Form Arguments [WLOs: 2, 3, 4] [CLOs: 1, 2]
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- Read the assigned chapters in your course textbook.
- Watch the following videos:
- Identifying Premises and Conclusions (Links to an external site.)
- What Is an Argument? (Links to an external site.)
- What (Links to an external site.) Is a Good Argument? (Part I) (Links to an external site.)
- What Is a Good Argument?: The Logic Condition (Links to an external site.)
- Standard Form Chris Foster (Links to an external site.)
- Complete the interactive module PHI 103 Premises and Conclusions (Links to an external site.).
Your instructor will choose the discussion question and post it as the first post in the discussion forum. Answer all the questions in the prompt, and read any resources that are required to complete the discussion properly. If you have not done so already, begin by choosing a topic from the Final Paper Options downloadlist to use in your writing assignments in this course.
Guided Response: In addition to your original post, post a minimum of three responses for a total of at least four posts. At least two responses must be to your classmates; the third response could be to a classmate or your instructor. Be sure to post on three separate days throughout the week to promote further engagement and discussion. Each response should be a minimum of 75 words.
Welcome to our Discussion Board Forum for Week 1:
There is a rather extensive new listing of topics from which to choose for your final paper topic, and they are organized into categories to make it easier to narrow down your choice. As a courtesy, this list is being emailed in advance to the class. It is located above as Final Paper Options. This list is also provided in ASSIGNMENT 1 instructions, as you will soon notice.
Choose a topic of interest to you, for which you feel you could create a strong argument on both sides. You will be using this topic for all three of your papers in this course.
Find one source that presents a view on one side of the topic you chose. Your source here does not have to be scholarly, but perhaps an article that you find in a newspaper or on the internet.
Present the main argument made by the source. Make sure to put the argument in standard form, with the premises listed above the conclusion.
Without taking sides on the issue, explain whether you feel that the source provides the strongest representation of the reasoning on that side of the issue. Consider the following questions in your initial post:
- How clearly was the argument expressed within this source?
- What more could be done to strengthen the reasoning in this source?
- What might one do to objectively understand the issue?
Guided Response: In addition to your own post, post a minimum of three responses, at least two of which must be to your classmates. The third response could be to a classmate or your instructor. Be sure to post on three separate days throughout the week to promote further engagement and discussion. Each response should be a minimum of 50 words.
