Course Outline
MODR 1730 6.0F
Reasoning about Social Issues
Department of Philosophy/Modes of Reasoning
York University
Fall/Winter 2023-24
Course Director: Professor Philip MacEwen
E-mail: pmacewen@yorku.ca
In-class location, day, and time: HNE 034 (Health, Nursing, and Environmental Studies,
Room 034), Wednesdays, 11:30-2:30
Office Hours: after the lecture on Wednesdays in HNE 034 (in-class) or by appointment
(synchronous and asynchronous)
First Day of Classes: Wednesday, September 6, 2023
Last Day of Classes, Wednesday, April 3, 2024
First Week of Classes: September 6-8, 2023
Last Week of Classes: April 1-5, 2024
1. Welcome to MODR 1730 6.0F!
2. This course is in-class. It will be presented in HyFlex format. In other words, in-class
sessions will also be recorded on Zoom and downloaded from the iCloud to the course
website. In-class sessions will be presented both synchronously (Wednesdays, 11:30-2:30)
and asynchronously (Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, etc.). The Course Outline will observe this
format.
3. With the HyFlex format, the course can easily move to an on-line (synchronous and
asynchronous) format, should such be necessary.
4. To access the course website, log on to your student account and follow the relevant link/s.
5. Synchronously, the course begins on Wednesday, September 6, 2023 and ends on
Wednesday, April 3, 2024.
6. Asynchronously, the course begins with Week 1 and ends with Week 24.
7. Since there are two Reading Weeks in the Fall/Winter Semester (October 7-13, 2023 and
February 17-23, 2024) when the University is open but there are no classes/lectures, as
well as the Winter Break (December 21, 2023-January 7, 2024) when the University is
closed, this adds up to a total of 24 classes/lectures.
8. Each class/week, one lecture is presented on a given topic. The lectures and topics are listed
below (see Lectures and Topics). I have posted the written lectures for the entire course
on the course website. That way, students who want to work ahead in the course will be
able to do so.
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9. Each written lecture is followed by a set of exercises with answers at the end. Please
complete the exercises after you have either i) read the relevant written lecture and attended
the relevant class or ii) read the relevant written lecture and listened to/watched the relevant
presentation of it on Zoom (see next paragraph).
10. To access the Zoom presentations synchronously, i) log on to the course website at 11:30
am, beginning Wednesday, September 6, 2023 and each Wednesday thereafter at the same
time (except when there are no classes) up to and including Wednesday, April 3, 2024 (see
Lectures and Topics below), ii) click on the Zoom icon at the top of the main page, and
iii) follow the relevant links. You can join the presentations via a live picture, a still picture,
or by name only. The choice is yours.
11. To access the Zoom presentations asynchronously, i) log on to the course website from
Week 1 to Week 24, ii) click on the Zoom icon at the top of the main page, and iii) click
on the relevant iCloud Recording/s.
12. Zoom presentations will be recorded in both audio and audio-visual formats. You may
access the format/s of your choice.
13. Zoom presentations will be downloaded from the iCloud to the course website shortly after
they are recorded. This process takes time so bear this in mind when you try to access a
recently recorded presentation.
14. For each session/week, I have posted a Chat Room on the course website. This is a platform
for students to discuss course material among yourselves. I will not monitor this platform.
It is rather a medium for students to interact about course material. I hope you find it
helpful.
15. Graded Assignments: Students will be evaluated on the basis of contributing to,
completing, and submitting five short group writing assignments, each worth 20% of the
final grade (5 x 20%=100%). The topics of the five short group writing assignments are
listed below (see Lectures and Topics). They also appear under Topics 6, 11, 15, 19, and
23 on the main page of the course website.
16. Each group writing assignment must consist of one paragraph (no more than half an 8.5 x
11” page), be single-spaced, and use a 12-point font. There is no word count. Students
should try to say complicated things simply, clearly, and, if possible, memorably so that
your audience, i.e., anyone interested in your topic, is likely to remember your main points.
17. Each student will be paired with no more than four other students, based on alphabetical
order according to surname. During the first week of the course (September 6-8), students
in each writing group will receive the e-mail addresses of the other members of their
writing group. Please contact the members of your writing group and get to know more
about them.
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18. In particular, get to know something about the academic and organizational skills they have
per their comprehension of course material, ability to brainstorm, coordinate groups, and
plan, write, and/or submit assignments. It is up to the members of each Writing Group to
determine their own division of labour. Provided they contribute to the submitted
assignment concerned, as indicated by their name and student number on the cover page
of each assignment, each member of the same group will receive the same grade for it.
Submissions will be evaluated according to the following criteria: i) what they should say
about the topic (content), ii) where they should say what they should say about the topic
(organization), and iii) how they should say what they should say about the topic (style).
i), ii), and iii) will each comprise 1/3 of the grading criterion.
19. At the end of each written chapter/lecture, I give you a model case, i.e., an A+ example, of
a short writing assignment which meets criteria i), ii), and iii). Over the duration of the
course, you will amass a large repertoire of these model cases which will help you with
your own short group writing submissions. Please note that these model cases will help
you with your own short group writing submissions; they are not to be copied and
dispatched as your own work.
20. Please submit your completed short writing assignments to me as e-mail attachments
(pmacewen@yorku.ca) at any time (asynchronous) but no later than the deadlines indicated
under Lectures and Topics below. On a separate cover page, indicate i) the names and
student numbers of each of the members of your group who contributed to that assignment,
ii) the title of your assignment (e.g., 1st Short Group Writing Assignment, 2nd Short Group
Writing Assignment, etc.), and iii) the section of MODR 1730 in which you are enrolled,
i.e., MODR 1730F.
21. Also, please COPY the participating members of your Writing Group when you send me
assignments. That way, participating members will know if and when each of the five
assignments has been submitted to me. Assignments which are not copied to the
participating members of your writing group will be returned to the sender without
comments and without a grade.
22. I have provided topics and matrices for each of the five Short Group Writing Assignments.
You will find them under Topics 6, 11, 15, 19, and 23 on the main page of the course
website. The matrices tell you how to organize your assignments and give sentence-bysentence descriptions of what content they should include. If your Writing Group can
construct better matrices than the ones I have provided, which is extremely unlikely, please
use the former.
23. There is no grade for course “attendance” or participation. However, if you are actively
involved in the course, as manifested primarily by contributing to and completing the five
short group writing assignments, and end up with a final grade within one number of the
next higher letter grade, i.e., 89, 79, 69, 59, etc., I will raise your final grade to the next
higher letter grade. If you are not actively involved in the course, again as manifested
primarily by the same criterion, your final grade will remain the same, even if it is within
one number of the next higher letter grade.
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24. Required Reading: Students are not required to purchase any texts, hard copy or virtual,
for the course. The only required reading is the written lectures, including the exercises at
the end of each, posted on the course website. By the time the course is over, you will have
a detailed text on Reasoning about Social Issues.
25. Please note that all the material for MODR 1730 6.0F is under copyright and can only be
used or cited outside this course with the written permission of the Course Director.
26. Lectures and Topics: Here are the lectures and topics for the course, listed in
chronological order from September 6/Week 1 to April 3/Week 24. The five short group
writing assignments are in bold print:
September 6/Week 1, Chapter 1/Lecture 1: The Nature of Logic and Reasoning
September 13/Week 2, Chapter 2/Lecture 2: The Nature of Language
September 20/Week 3, Chapter 3/Lecture 3: Analyzing Arguments
September 27/Week 4, Chapter 4/Lecture 4: Assessing Deductive Arguments
October 4/Week 5: Chapter 5/Lecture 5: Assessing Inductive Arguments
October 7-13, Fall Reading Week, no classes/lectures
October 18/Week 6: Chapter 6/Lecture 6: Assessing Claims
1st Short Group Writing Assignment, worth 20% of the final grade, due anytime
(asynchronous) but no later than Wednesday, October 18, 11:59:59 pm: “In one paragraph
(no more than half an 8.5 x 11” page, single-spaced text, 12-point font, no word count),
explain the difference between deductive and inductive arguments.”
October 25/Week 7, Chapter 7/Lecture 7: Review of Chapters/Lectures 1-6
November 1/Week 8, Chapter 8/Lecture 8: Fallacies in Argument 1
November 8/Week 9, Chapter/ 9/Lecture 9: Fallacies in Argument 2
November 15/Week 10, Chapter 10/Lecture 10: Fallacies in Argument 3
November 22/Week 11, Chapter 11/Lecture 11: Review of Chapters/Lectures 8-10
2nd Short Group Writing Assignment, worth 20% of the final grade, due anytime
(asynchronous) but no later than Wednesday, November 22, 11:59:59 pm: “In one
paragraph (no more than half an 8.5 x 11” page, single-spaced text, 12-point font, no word
count), a) map the argument in the following passage in terms of its premises and conclusion
(e.g., P1, P2, P3, etc., C), b) identify one fallacy the argument commits, and c) justify your
fallacy selection:
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‘We
can’t reason about social issues. My reasons for why people should behave in a certain
way or hold certain views may be different from yours. For example, I endorsed mandatory
vaccination for epidemiological reasons in response to the COVID-19 pandemic while some
of my friends endorsed elective vaccination for reasons of personal autonomy. This reasoning
proves that we can’t reason about social issues.’”
November 29/Week 12, Chapter 12/Lecture 12: Conceptual Analysis 1
December 21, 2023-January 7, 2024, Winter Break, no classes/lectures
January 10/Week 13, Chapter 13/Lecture 13: Conceptual Analysis 2
January 17/Week 14, Chapter 14/Lecture 14: Conceptual Analysis 3
January 24/Week 15, Chapter 15/Lecture 15: Review of Chapters/Lectures 12-14
3rd Short Group Writing Assignment, worth 20% of final grade, due anytime (asynchronous)
but no later than Wednesday, January 24, 11:59:59 pm: “In one paragraph (no more than
half an 8.5 x 11” page, single-spaced text, 12-point font, no word count), give a reasoned
response to the conceptual question, ‘Is justice fairness?’”
January 31/Week 16, Chapters 16Lectures 16: Reasoning about Social Issues 1
February 7/Week 17, Chapter 18/Lecture 18: Reasoning about Social Issues 2
February 14/Week 18, Chapter 19/Lecture 19: Reasoning about Social Issues 3
February 17-23, Winter Reading Week, no classes/lectures
February 28/Week 19, Chapter 20/Lecture 20: Reasoning about Social Issues 4
4th Short Group Writing Assignment, worth 20% of final grade, due anytime (asynchronous)
but no later than Wednesday, February 28, 11:59:59 pm: “In one paragraph (no more than
half an 8.5 x 11” page, single-spaced text, 12-point font, no word count), give a reasoned
response to the following claim: ‘Television is a cold medium in the sense that it gives its
audience relatively little information but demands its exclusive attention, as opposed to a hot
medium like radio which gives its audience a lot of information but demands very little of its
attention.’”
March 6/Week 20, Chapter 21/Lecture 21: Reasoning about Social Issues 5
March 13/Week 21, Chapter 22/Lecture 22: Reasoning about Social Issues 6
March 20/Week 22, Chapter 23/Lecture 23: Reasoning about Social Issues 7
March 27/Week 23, Chapter 24/Lecture 24: Reasoning about Social Issues 8
5th Short Group Writing Assignment, worth 20% of final grade, due anytime (asynchronous)
but no later than Wednesday, March 27, 11:59:59 pm: “In one paragraph (no more than half
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an 8.5 x 11” page, single-spaced text, 12-point font, no word count), give a reasoned response
to the following claim: ‘Governments should legalize the recreational use of small amounts
of marijuana rather than criminalize or decriminalize it.’”
April 3/Week 24, Chapter/ 25/Lecture 25: Reasoning about Social Issues 9 and Review of
Course
Important Announcements:
1. If you want to contact me personally to discuss course material, either see me after the
lecture in HNE 034 (in-class) or send me your phone number via e-mail and let me know
when I can contact you (synchronous and asynchronous).
2. Contributing members of each group will be notified via e-mail of their grade, with a
commentary on each of the completed five short group writing assignments, within a few
days after they have been submitted. Submissions made asynchronously will be returned
within a few days after the respective deadlines for each writing assignment.
3. Please keep a careful inventory of your grades on each of the five short group writing
assignments so that you can determine your final grade once you have received your grades
for all the assignments.
4. Final grades will be posted on-line within a few days after the final class (Wednesday,
April 3). You may access your final grade by logging on to your student account and
following the relevant link/s.
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