Humanities and Fine Arts 191HFA39 - FYS-CritThinking/Pol Polar Age

Everyone who has paid even a little bit of attention to American politics over the past few years has come to the same conclusion: The whole country has gone mad! Or, more accurately, half of it has. It's become increasingly easy to think that members of the "other side" are simply irrational when it comes to political matters ? that they've gone off the rails, have been duped by fake news and propaganda, and are afflicted by group-think. Likewise, it's become increasingly easy to think that those on "our side" are uniquely sensitive to the truth, capable of independent thought, and competent at sound reasoning. But can it really be that simple? As it turns out, we have a great deal of evidence that we?re all afflicted by the same kinds of cognitive biases and pitfalls in reasoning, and furthermore that none of us are immune to having these weaknesses taken advantage of by those who wish to manipulate our beliefs for their own political or material ends. To make matters worse, recent social and technological changes ? like the increasing prominence of online echo chambers and filter bubbles, and the development of microtargeted advertising ? have only exacerbated these problems. What does all of this mean for us as individuals ? and as members of a democratic society? How can we tell whether or not we're in an echo chamber, or reading fake news? What are the techniques people use to try to manipulate our beliefs, and what can we do to resist them? How can we be sure that we have good reasons for our political opinions? The aim of this course is to give students an opportunity to engage with these difficult questions with peers from different backgrounds, and to provide them with the intellectual tools necessary to come up with satisfying answers for themselves.

Open to first-year Humanities and Fine Arts Exploratory Track students and first-year HFA Majors.