Reasoning and Argumentation
RA 101 – Fall 2021
Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville
Dr. Meredith Verrochi
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An idea is exactly as good as the arguments in its support.
— James Rachels
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Instructor Information for Dr. Verrochi
Email: mverroc@siue.edu
Office: Peck Hall, 0228
Office Hours: Wednesdays 11-noon, and by appointment.
I’m available to meet virtually M-Th during typical business hours. Always feel free to email me
to set up an appointment.
All the writing you do for this course should be formal (as opposed to informal). In other
words, use complete sentences, periods, appropriate capitalization and salutation (i.e., “Dear
Dr. Verrochi”) etc., whenever you are writing something for this course, including email
communication.
Required Texts
•Fogelin and Sinnott-Armstrong. Understanding Arguments: An Introduction to Informal
Logic, 9th edition. Cengage Learning. 2014.
•Various readings and required articles posted on Blackboard.
Course Description
Logic is the systematic evaluation of arguments. At the end of this course the successful student
will be able to:
1. Identify arguments, premises, and conclusions.
2. Judge both the validity and soundness of deductive arguments.
3. Judge the relative strength of inductive arguments.
4. Analyze arguments for fallacies of reasoning.
5. Appraise the logical/critical qualities of arguments used in everyday life.
6. Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the various logical procedures
employed in this class.
7. Construct cogent arguments.
Reasoning is a part of our everyday lives. Thus, cultivating the tools necessary to reason well
directly affects how nice and easy our everyday experiences can be. In this class you will learn to
reason well. In the interest of making your study of logic as “practical” as possible, one large
project will arc the entire semester. In this project, you will closely analyze a very famous article
that focuses on moral reasoning. By the end of the semester you will have exercised most (if not
all) of the objectives listed above through your extended and thorough analysis of this one
scholarly piece, arming you with a real instance of successfully employing your newly honed
critical thinking skills.
Course Structure
This RA 101 course is divided into FOUR Modules.:
Module 1 — The Basics & Deductive Reasoning
Module 2 — Inductive Reasoning
