(This is a free course offered online beginning November 26th. Sign up at the link below.)
Reasoning is important. This course will teach you how to do it well. You will learn how to understand and assess arguments by other people and how to construct good arguments of your own about whatever matters to you.
Course Syllabus
PART I: HOW TO ANALYZE ARGUMENTS (or identify, simplify, and arrange their parts to show how they are connected in a structure)
- Week One: How to Spot an Argument
- Week Two: How to Untangle an Argument
- Week Three: How to Reconstruct an Argument
PART II: HOW TO EVALUATE DEDUCTIVE ARGUMENTS (or determine whether their premises validly imply their conclusions)
- Week Four: Propositional Logic and Truth Tables
- Week Five: Categorical Logic and Syllogisms
PART III: HOW TO EVALUATE INDUCTIVE ARGUMENTS (or determine whether their premises provide enough reason to believe their conclusions)
- Week Six: What are Inductive Arguments?
- Week Seven: Causal Reasoning
- Week Eight: Probability and Decisions
PART IV: HOW TO MESS UP ARGUMENTS (or commit common but tempting fallacies)
- Week Nine: Fallacies of Vagueness and Ambiguity
- Week Ten: Fallacies of Relevance and Vacuity
- Week Eleven: How to Refute an Argument
- Week Twelve: How to Apply these Methods to Everyday Arguments
