Week 15 · Readings & resources

Week 15 — Readings & Resources

Critical Thinking Free sample edition

Your primary reading is Chapter 15 (in this module). Everything below is the optional, go-deeper layer — pick what helps, skip the rest.

How to use this page

This page has 10 items (4 readings and 6 videos). Allow 64–80 minutes for everything. Each group points back to the matching chapter section and class-session segment, so use the full menu when you want more, or take the quick path below.

Every video here has captions: turn them on with the CC button in the player. The chapter covers the same ideas in text.

Pick-one quick path (18–21 min total)

① Outcomes and duties: two frameworks as tools

Chapter 15, Section “Use three frameworks as tools, not verdicts” · Session 1, Segment 4, “Three frameworks as tools” · Remember: a framework tells you which reasons to weigh, and each one has a strongest case and standard objections.

PHILOSOPHY - Ethics: Consequentialism — Wireless Philosophy — a five-minute animated talk that defines consequentialism, works a doctor's choice between saving one person and saving five, and then states two standard objections: a promise can matter even when breaking it turns out slightly better, and a theory that always demands the most good can seem too demanding. (video, 5 min) (captions: creator)
Introduction to Consequentialism — 1000-Word Philosophy — a short essay on judging actions by their results, with two hard cases that critics raise against the view and two replies a defender can try; read it for the strongest case and the standard objections side by side. (reading, 5–8 min)
Kant's Categorical Imperative (Deontology) — Thinking About Stuff — a four-minute explainer on the best-known duty-based theory: moral rules that hold whatever the consequences, and Kant's test of whether the rule behind an act, such as making a false promise to borrow money, could still work if everyone followed it. (video, 4 min) (captions: automatic)
Introduction to Deontology: Kantian Ethics — 1000-Word Philosophy — a short essay that uses the runaway-trolley puzzles to show why many people think outcomes are not all that matter, then states one well-known objection about lying; read the numbered sections and skip the notes and the reference list at the end. Use it while working through the Week-15 module overview. (reading, 5–8 min)

② Character, and both sides at once

Chapter 15, Section “Argue both sides from each framework” · Session 2, Segment 5, “Both sides from each framework” · Remember: the same framework can give reasons on both sides of one question, so no framework settles a case on its own.

Aristotle & Virtue Theory: Crash Course Philosophy #38 — CrashCourse — a nine-minute episode on character-based ethics: a virtue as the middle ground between too much and too little, learning from people of good character, and the idea of a life that goes well. (video, 9 min) (captions: creator)
Aristotle: Ethics — Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy — a reference entry on character as something built by habit and on virtue as a mean between two vices; read the sections on habit and on the mean, and skip the later section on the noble. (reading, 12–18 min)
Kill 1 to Save 5? Consequentialism vs. Deontology — Thinking About Stuff — a three-minute explainer that uses two kill-one-to-save-five cases, a runaway trolley and a surgeon with five patients, to show why each framework seems right in one of them; as you watch, notice that each framework gives a real reason, the move the chapter makes with the library question. (video, 3 min) (captions: creator)

③ Answer the strongest objection

Chapter 15, Section “Build and defend your own argument” · Session 2, Segment 7, “Build and defend your own argument” · Remember: state the objection at its strongest, reply to that version, and say where your own argument is weakest.

How to Object to an Argument (How to Write a Philosophy Paper) — Carneades.org — an eight-minute talk on the two ways to object to an argument, against its logic or against one of its premises, and on two styles of objection: showing that a premise leads somewhere absurd, and showing that two cases differ in no way that matters. Aim each objection at a premise the arguer actually holds, not at a straw man. (video, 8 min) (captions: automatic)
Objecting to Yourself (How to Write A Philosophy Paper) — Carneades.org — a seven-minute talk on ending an argument by stating the strongest objections to your own position, without weakening them, and replying to each one. Its closing advice to finish as if no one could object goes further than this course does: here you also name where your own argument is weakest. This builds on Week 13's work with assessing scientific reasoning and your own thinking, now turned on an argument you wrote. (video, 7 min) (captions: automatic)

Optional one-stop reference (free online reference)

Validity and Soundness — Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy — a short reference entry on valid, invalid, sound, and unsound arguments, the definitions behind the first row of the course synthesis; read the whole entry when you review how the tests fit together, and skip the closing bibliography. (reading, 6–10 min)

Heads-up (links rot): these point to outside sites that occasionally move or rename pages. If a link ever fails, tell your instructor and use the reference above in the meantime.

Provenance: Built with The Course Maker · samples.thecoursemaker.com