'What’s wrong with this argument?!’

If you ever asked yourself this question while reading the news, a scientific paper, or participating in a social media exchange, then this course is for you. During 12 meetings, you will be offered the basics of argumentation skills. The course is geared towards assessing arguments found within a domain or text genre of your own choice, depending on your interests or field of study. 

You will be in the lead of the learning process. You choose an area in which argumentation skills are fundamental: a) social media discussions, b) online news outlets, c) popular science articles and d) specific argumentative contexts such as politics, law, medicine and science. 

You will then be offered a toolbox you can use to perform an argumentation analysis, consisting of methods for (1) argument detection, (2) argument type identification and assessment, and (3) argument production. These tools are offered within the context of an approach to argument-checking in which the epistemic value and moral dimensions of information in the digital era are explicitly discussed. This will enable you to articulate the ethical dimension of argumentation, both at the level of argument evaluation and argument production. 

During the course, you will have the opportunity to discuss the societal relevance of argumentation theory and concrete options to make social media and online information outlets fairer, more transparent and compliant with ethical standards. You will also have the opportunity to discuss the prospects of automating the process of argument-checking with experts in the field. 

Schedule

The schedule will be available on Datanose.

Registration

Registration is open to second-year or third-year Bachelor's students participating in an Honours programme. Between 8 June 10 am and 12 June 11 pm, you can register by completing the online registration form that will appear on our website Honoursmodules IIS.  

Please note: Registration is not through SIS. Placement is at random. There is no guarantee for placement if you register after June 12, so make sure you register on time. You will hear which course(s) you are registered for in the week of 20 June.  

If you have any questions, please contact us at Honours-iis@uva.nl. 

SDGs in education

The IIS strives to reflect current societal issues and challenges in our elective courses, honours modules and degree programmes and attempts to integrate the following Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in this course. For more information about these goals, please visit the SDGs website.

More information