The Art of Argument

In this section, you can find notes from each of our classes. Some of these notes will be quite complete and full, others will be a bit more scrappy. This is not a course manual, but it is instead a place to share information, ideas, stray thoughts, summaries, and suggestions in a way that is easily accessible.

As these are only notes — a work in progress — please don’t see these pages as something you should be citing in your essays!

Class 20 - Is Fake News Old News?

Welcome back! Our session today is turning to the question of fake news, and asking: is fake news old news? What is fake news? And how new is it? Is it a recent threat to the public exercise of reason? Or does it have a longer history. The article we’re reading is Novaes, C. D., & de Ridder, J. (2021). Is fake news old news? In S. Bernecker, A. K. Flowerree, & T. Grundmann (Eds.), The Epistemology of Fake News (pp.

2025-05-06

2 min read

Class 20 - Is Fake News Old News?

Welcome back! In this session, we’re going to talk a topic that has been of growing interest in the world of philosophy, and that is bullshit. For some philosophers at least, bullshit is one of the biggest problems standing in the way of democracy — interpreted here as the public exercise of reason. This means that if we are interested in the arts of argument, we also need to tackle the question of bullshit. But what is bullshit, and why does it matter?

2025-05-06

3 min read

Class 19 - Presentation Planning

Welcome back! Presentation Discussion In the first half, I’m going to get you sharing your sketches and notes from your presentation, and talking about these. When you have done this, we’ll move onto our next topic: and that is fake news! In the first half, I want you to talk about: What you are presenting on How you are presenting this information What challenges you are facing We’ll talk about this in the main group to really try to pin down your ideas.

2025-05-04

1 min read