PHIL 281 Topics in Ethics Calling Bullshit: Critical Thinking Today

2 sections Online, asynchronous Course limit: 20 Spring, 2024 Many say that if we know better, we can do better. However, how can we learn to know better today? How we can we separate fact from fiction when the very notion of “facts” has been undermined? In the 21st-century critical thinking and careful attention are diminishing. This digital age offers falsehoods, manipulations, trickery, injustice, bad ideology, “dog whistles,” distorting language, propaganda, and “bullshit.” Bergstrom and West define “bullshit” as the use of “statistical figures, data graphics, and other forms of presentation intended to persuade by impressing and overwhelming a reader or listener, with a blatant disregard for truth and logical coherence.” We will develop skills and abilities to identify, analyze, and confront bullshit (as well as other distorting phenomena), and how to fight it through clear, critical reasoning. We will investigate how such critical thinking can contribute to ethical living – at individual and collective levels. This course is developed from Carl T. Bergstrom and Jevin West’s university course “Calling Bullshit: Data Reasoning in a Digital World.”