|
Class number:
3384
|
|
Title: The Art of the Con |
|
Department: First Year Sem & Colloq |
|
Career: Undergraduate |
|
Component: Seminar |
|
Session: Regular |
|
Instructor's Permission Required: Yes |
|
Grading Basis: Graded |
|
Units: 1.00 |
| Enrollment limited to 15 |
|
Current enrollment: 15 |
|
Available seats: 0 |
|
Start date: Tuesday, September 2, 2025 |
|
End date: Wednesday, December 17, 2025 |
|
Mode of Instruction: In Person |
|
Schedule: MW: 1:30PM-2:45PM, LSC - 132 |
|
|
Instructor(s): Helberg, Alexander |
|
Prerequisite(s): Only first-year students are eligible to enroll in this class. |
|
Distribution Requirement: Meets FirstYr Seminar Requirement |
Course Description:
QAnon plots to take down satanic political cabals. Cryptocurrency pump-and-dump schemes. Vaccine skepticism causing outbreaks of previously “beaten” diseases. In our contemporary hyper-saturated media environments, it may seem like we are living in a unique period of irrationality, paranoia, and fraud. But in truth, these are all-too-human tendencies that have been with us long before the rise of the internet and the technological amplification of some of the most specious lines of thinking.In this First-Year Seminar course, we will interrogate the historical roots and contemporary manifestations of “un-critical” thinking, sequenced by three of its most prevalent categories: conspiracy theorizing, falling for confidence games (or more colloquially, “cons”), and forms of reactionary contrarian logic. The goal of this course is to prepare students with a set of critical thinking tools to marshal against these anti-intellectual forces as they encounter them in everyday life, and equip them with strategies for self-efficacious independent reasoning. |