DA4710 Critical Thinking and Ethical Decision Making

This course explores contemporary and classical normative ethics, the basic foundations of logic and critical thinking, applied ethics cases and argumentation, with some brief forays into metaethics. The combination of these is designed to investigate and develop effective ethical leadership and higher-order decision making skills. Emphasis is placed on the ability to recognize logical fallacies and avoid cognitive traps to become a more effective critical thinker on moral dilemmas. Readings range from ancient philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle through modern thinkers such as Kant and Mill into present day applied ethics research papers. Prerequisite: None.

Lecture Hours

4

Lab Hours

0

Course Learning Outcomes

• Furthering your critical reasoning and decision making skills.
• Furthering your ability to read critically and determine the bias and/or validity of what you read.
• Furthering your understanding of classical ethical theories, and contemporary analysis and application of those theories to both the military and society at large.
• Furthering your ability to support your analysis in discussion with responsible reasoning and specific reference to the text.