The Portfolio consists of two 500 word critical evaluations of material covered in the class and three essay plans (totalling 1,000 words)

In small groups, students will devise a 'spider' diagramme showing different aspects of a given problem or issue. They will then be asked individually to prepare three different essay plans demonstrating how the same problem could be approached in different ways, with a view towards producing three different pieces of work. The assessment will be of these essay plans, not any work produced from them. The work will be approx 1000 words.

The module aims to encourage in students an appreciation of the basic principles of constructing sound arguments and an ability to expose the varieties of mistakes and fallacies that occur in bad or unsuccessful arguments. Much of the content of the module will be made up of a critical analysis of actual arguments drawn both from classic readings in the philosophical tradition and from non-philosophical sources where reason or evidence is used to support a position (e.g. journalism, broadcast media). Particular attention will be given to non-rational factors that are used to persuade us of some view or opinion, such as appeals to emotion or authority, personal attack, uses and abuses of expert opinion, problems in deploying statistical data, analogy, and equivocation. Throughout the module, students will be encouraged to respond creatively to examples, expressing their own views clearly in both written and spoken form.

Baggini, Julian and Fosl, Peter The Philosopher's Toolkit: a Compendium of Philosophical Concepts and Methods, Blackwell, 2002
Burnham, Douglas Get Set for Philosophy, Edinburgh University Press, 2003
Fogelin, Robert Understanding Arguments: Introduction to Informal Logic, Thomson Learning, 1996
Guttenplan, Samuel, Hornsby, Jennifer, and Janaway, Christopher [edd] Reading Philosophy: Selected Texts with a Method for Beginners, Blackwell, 2002
Martinich, A P Philosophical Writing: an Introduction, Third edition, Blackwell 2005
Morton, Adam Philosophy in Practice, Second edition, Blackwell, 2003
Walton, Douglas Informal Logic: a Handbook for Critical Argument, Cambridge University Press, 1989

Library, IT facilities, seminar rooms for independent group work, and presentation facilities.

The module will be delivered by a mixed strategy including tutor led discussions, small group work, seminars and workshops.