logic and critical thinking pdf freshman course

PHIL102: Introduction to Critical Thinking and Logic

Course introduction.

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The course touches upon a wide range of reasoning skills, from verbal argument analysis to formal logic, visual and statistical reasoning, scientific methodology, and creative thinking. Mastering these skills will help you become a more perceptive reader and listener, a more persuasive writer and presenter, and a more effective researcher and scientist.

The first unit introduces the terrain of critical thinking and covers the basics of meaning analysis, while the second unit provides a primer for analyzing arguments. All of the material in these first units will be built upon in subsequent units, which cover informal and formal logic, Venn diagrams, scientific reasoning, and strategic and creative thinking.

Course Syllabus

First, read the course syllabus. Then, enroll in the course by clicking "Enroll me". Click Unit 1 to read its introduction and learning outcomes. You will then see the learning materials and instructions on how to use them.

Unit 1: Introduction and Meaning Analysis

Critical thinking is a broad classification for a diverse array of reasoning techniques. In general, critical thinking works by breaking arguments and claims down to their basic underlying structure so we can see them clearly and determine whether they are rational. The idea is to help us do a better job of understanding and evaluating what we read, what we hear, and what we write and say.

In this unit, we will define the broad contours of critical thinking and learn why it is a valuable and useful object of study. We will also introduce the fundamentals of meaning analysis: the difference between literal meaning and implication, the principles of definition, how to identify when a disagreement is merely verbal, the distinction between necessary and sufficient conditions, and problems with the imprecision of ordinary language.

Completing this unit should take you approximately 5 hours.

Unit 2: Argument Analysis

Arguments are the fundamental components of all rational discourse: nearly everything we read and write, like scientific reports, newspaper columns, and personal letters, as well as most of our verbal conversations, contain arguments. Picking the arguments out from the rest of our often convoluted discourse can be difficult. Once we have identified an argument, we still need to determine whether or not it is sound. Luckily, arguments obey a set of formal rules that we can use to determine whether they are good or bad.

In this unit, you will learn how to identify arguments, what makes an argument sound as opposed to unsound or merely valid, the difference between deductive and inductive reasoning, and how to map arguments to reveal their structure.

Completing this unit should take you approximately 7 hours.

Unit 3: Basic Sentential Logic

This unit introduces a topic that many students find intimidating: formal logic. Although it sounds difficult and complicated, formal (or symbolic) logic is actually a fairly straightforward way of revealing the structure of reasoning. By translating arguments into symbols, you can more readily see what is right and wrong with them and learn how to formulate better arguments. Advanced courses in formal logic focus on using rules of inference to construct elaborate proofs. Using these techniques, you can solve many complicated problems simply by manipulating symbols on the page. In this course, however, you will only be looking at the most basic properties of a system of logic. In this unit, you will learn how to turn phrases in ordinary language into well-formed formulas, draw truth tables for formulas, and evaluate arguments using those truth tables.

Completing this unit should take you approximately 13 hours.

Unit 4: Venn Diagrams

In addition to using predicate logic, the limitations of sentential logic can also be overcome by using Venn diagrams to illustrate statements and arguments. Statements that include general words like "some" or "few" as well as absolute words like "every" and "all" – so-called categorical statements – lend themselves to being represented on paper as circles that may or may not overlap.

Venn diagrams are especially helpful when dealing with logical arguments called syllogisms. Syllogisms are a special type of three-step argument with two premises and a conclusion, which involve quantifying terms. In this unit, you will learn the basic principles of Venn diagrams, how to use them to represent statements, and how to use them to evaluate arguments.

Completing this unit should take you approximately 6 hours.

Unit 5: Fallacies

Now that you have studied the necessary structure of a good argument and can represent its structure visually, you might think it would be simple to pick out bad arguments. However, identifying bad arguments can be very tricky in practice. Very often, what at first appears to be ironclad reasoning turns out to contain one or more subtle errors.

Fortunately, there are many easily identifiable fallacies (mistakes of reasoning) that you can learn to recognize by their structure or content. In this unit, you will learn about the nature of fallacies, look at a couple of different ways of classifying them, and spend some time dealing with the most common fallacies in detail.

Completing this unit should take you approximately 3 hours.

Unit 6: Scientific Reasoning

Unlike the syllogistic arguments you explored in the last unit, which are a form of deductive argument, scientific reasoning is empirical. This means that it depends on observation and evidence, not logical principles. Although some principles of deductive reasoning do apply in science, such as the principle of contradiction, scientific arguments are often inductive. For this reason, science often deals with confirmation and disconfirmation.

Nonetheless, there are general guidelines about what constitutes good scientific reasoning, and scientists are trained to be critical of their inferences and those of others in the scientific community. In this unit, you will investigate some standard methods of scientific reasoning, some principles of confirmation and disconfirmation, and some techniques for identifying and reasoning about causation.

Completing this unit should take you approximately 4 hours.

Unit 7: Strategic Reasoning and Creativity

While most of this course has focused on the types of reasoning necessary to critique and evaluate existing knowledge or to extend our knowledge following correct procedures and rules, an enormous branch of our reasoning practice runs in the opposite direction. Strategic reasoning, problem-solving, and creative thinking all rely on an ineffable component of novelty supplied by the thinker.

Despite their seemingly mystical nature, problem-solving and creative thinking are best approached by following tried and tested procedures that prompt our cognitive faculties to produce new ideas and solutions by extending our existing knowledge. In this unit, you will investigate problem-solving techniques, representing complex problems visually, making decisions in risky and uncertain scenarios, and creative thinking in general.

Completing this unit should take you approximately 2 hours.

Study Guide

This study guide will help you get ready for the final exam. It discusses the key topics in each unit, walks through the learning outcomes, and lists important vocabulary terms. It is not meant to replace the course materials!

Course Feedback Survey

Please take a few minutes to give us feedback about this course. We appreciate your feedback, whether you completed the whole course or even just a few resources. Your feedback will help us make our courses better, and we use your feedback each time we make updates to our courses.

If you come across any urgent problems, email [email protected].

Certificate Final Exam

Take this exam if you want to earn a free Course Completion Certificate.

To receive a free Course Completion Certificate, you will need to earn a grade of 70% or higher on this final exam. Your grade for the exam will be calculated as soon as you complete it. If you do not pass the exam on your first try, you can take it again as many times as you want, with a 7-day waiting period between each attempt.

Once you pass this final exam, you will be awarded a free Course Completion Certificate .

Saylor Direct Credit

Take this exam if you want to earn college credit for this course . This course is eligible for college credit through Saylor Academy's Saylor Direct Credit Program .

The Saylor Direct Credit Final Exam requires a proctoring fee of $5 . To pass this course and earn a Credly Badge and official transcript , you will need to earn a grade of 70% or higher on the Saylor Direct Credit Final Exam. Your grade for this exam will be calculated as soon as you complete it. If you do not pass the exam on your first try, you can take it again a maximum of 3 times , with a 14-day waiting period between each attempt.

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Logical Reasoning

Bradley H. Dowden, California State University Sacramento

Copyright Year: 2017

Publisher: Bradley H. Dowden

Language: English

Formats Available

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Learn more about reviews.

Reviewed by Matt Carlson, Assistant Professor, Wabash College on 8/6/19

This book takes a "kitchen sink" approach to the material that might be taught in a standard critical thinking course. There is far more material here than could be taught in one semester. The good news, though, is that the chapters are, for the... read more

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

This book takes a "kitchen sink" approach to the material that might be taught in a standard critical thinking course. There is far more material here than could be taught in one semester. The good news, though, is that the chapters are, for the most part, independent of one another, so the book could be used in a relatively modular way.

Content Accuracy rating: 4

Generally good, but I found the use of 'logic' and its cognates to be a little confusing at times. If anything, this book is really about applied epistemology more than logic. That by itself isn't a criticism; it should just be called what it is. But this does introduce some problems in the sections more specifically about logic. The definition of deductive validity and implication, for example, are given in terms of certainty. The author warns against interpreting 'certainty' psychologically, but gives no clue as how to how it might be meant in a logical sense. It follows from this definition that it is possible to have P,Q such that Q "follows from P with certainty" but Q is not certain. I know what is meant by this because I already have background in logic, but I think students will be confused.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

A bit of a mixed bag here. I really liked the added section on "Fake News and Misinformation". I haven't seen that in a critical thinking book before, and I thought it was a valuable addition that was clearly informed by current research. I would have appreciated more guidance as to how to judge whether a source is reliable. Of course this is a hard problem (see Goldman's classic "Experts" paper), but the book just gave us a short list of reliable sources. Surely critical thinkers will ask: "But why are *those* sources reliable?"

Clarity rating: 3

The book is generally readable. But it introduces many, many distinctions and new pieces of terminology. Almost all of them are briefly explained when they are introduced, but the sheer number of terms and distinctions is difficult to keep track of. I found this to be a problem in the exercises in particular. Many of the exercises require students to employ the fine distinctions given in the text, but they haven't really been given much guidance (typically, just one example per term is given) as to how to apply those distinctions. As these are a little idiosyncratic in places, I admit that I sometimes had a hard time discerning what the intended "right answer" was supposed to be.

Consistency rating: 4

The book is generally consistent, or at least as consistent as it can be given the "kitchen-sink" approach to content that it employs.

Modularity rating: 5

See above remarks. One virtue of this text is its modularity.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

Generally good, though I found it a little strange that topics in logic (e.g. deductive validity) were briefly introduced early on, and then discussed in much more detail only in later chapters.

Interface rating: 5

Generally good.

Grammatical Errors rating: 4

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

I appreciated the wide variety of examples given.

As I said above, I think 'logical' in the title, "Logical Reasoning" is a misnomer. This is, for the most part, a book in applied epistemology and philosophy of science. And I think it generally does well in those areas. If one wants a book in logic, there are better open access choices; specifically works in the Open Logic Project, which I cannot recommend highly enough.

On an unrelated note, I found the sections on inductive reasoning somewhat confusing. I'm not sure how helpful it is to discuss inductive/statistical reasoning without requiring the student to do any mathematics. I suppose it is helpful for the student to be aware of pitfalls in statistical reasoning---and the book is helpful here---but students reading this book would have a hard time applying what that they learned about e.g. statistical significance to new cases, I think.

Table of Contents

• Chapter 1 How to Reason Logically
• Chapter 2 Claims, Issues, and Arguments
• Chapter 3 Writing with the Appropriate Precision
• Chapter 4 How to Evaluate Information and Judge Credibility
• Chapter 5 Obstacles to Better Communication
• Chapter 6 Writing to Convince Others
• Chapter 7 Defending Against Deception
• Chapter 8 Detecting Fallacies
• Chapter 9 Consistency and Inconsistency
• Chapter 10 Deductive Reasoning
• Chapter 11 Logical Form and Sentential Logic
• Chapter 12 Aristotelian Logic and Venn-Euler Diagrams
• Chapter 13 Inductive Reasoning
• Chapter 14 Reasoning about Causes and Their Effects
• Chapter 15 Scientific Reasoning

Ancillary Material

About the book.

The goal of this book is to improve your logical-reasoning skills. These skills are also called "critical thinking skills." They are a complex weave of abilities that help you get someone's point, generate reasons for your own point, evaluate the reasons given by others, decide what or what not to do, decide what information to accept or reject, explain a complicated idea, apply conscious quality control as you think, and resist propaganda. Your most important critical thinking skill is your skill at making judgments─not snap judgments that occur in the blink of an eye, but those that require careful reasoning.

This book is also available as an adaptable Word file .

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Introduction to Logic and Critical Thinking

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PHIL 110: Logic and Critical Thinking

Students will develop rational thinking skills through a combination of theory and practice. They will discuss good and bad thinking habits, learning to apply the former and to avoid the latter. This class includes an introduction to truth-tables and rules of inference in symbolic logic. The aim is to improve students' capacity for rational reasoning, question widely held beliefs, resist empty rhetoric and propaganda, distinguish relevant from irrelevant considerations, and construct sound arguments. PHIL 110 satisfies the math requirement for some majors.

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1: Basic Concepts

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The most important thing we do as human beings is learn how to think. This is important in two senses of the word: it’s important to human beings because it is the most distinctively unique fact about our species—we think rationally and abstractly—but it’s also important because it the most wide reaching capacity we have—it touches virtually all aspects of our lives. Having a heart that pumps blood or a body capable of certain physical activities might be more fundamental meaning more crucial to simply surviving, but thinking underlies a broad range of activities without which we would be living less than full human lives.

The common title of this course is “Logic and Critical Thinking.” So, we can think about the course as having two main components: the study of formal logic and the study of the tools and strategies of critical thinking. This text is structured in a bit of a “sandwich”. Units on critical thinking and then formal logic, and then units on more critical thinking topics.

First, Logic. We’ll define logic more fully later, but for now: logic is a sort of reasoning that is mathematical in its precision and proofs. It’s like math with words and concepts, in a sense.

Oh no! Not math! I'm no good at math.

Don’t worry, dear student. Logic is more straightforward than a lot of the complex concepts that get discussed in math classes. Even better, all of logic can be broken down into simple, step-by-step processes that a computer can do. You just need to follow the steps carefully and you’ll be guaranteed the right answer every time. There’s no magic to it, no special skills or abilities needed. You just need to follow directions carefully and put a bit of work into it.

Next, let’s get a bit of a definition of critical thinking going. Critical thinking is primarily the ability to think carefully about thinking and reasoning—to have the ability to criticize your own reasoning. ‘Criticize’ here isn’t meant in the sense of being mean or talking down or making fun of. Instead, I mean the word in the sense of, for example, how a coach might take a critical stance toward her players’ skills—he throws high every time, she doesn’t lead with her foot, they ride too forward in the saddle, etc. ‘Critical’ here means something more like ‘reflective’ or ‘careful’ or ‘attention to potential errors’.

So to engage in critical thinking is to engage in self-critical, self-reflective, self-aware thinking and reasoning—thinking and reasoning aimed at self-improvement, at truth, and at careful, deliberate, proper patterns of reasoning.

There are many definitions of what critical thinking is, but here’re my thoughts:

As you can see, being a critical thinker involves training yourself to have a lot of good habits and dispositions. It involves developing rational virtues so that when the time comes to think about something complex, you are naturally disposed to think well. It doesn’t happen overnight and it certainly doesn’t come for free—no one is born with it. We all need to train ourselves and educate ourselves to stay guarded against errors in reasoning.

• 1.1: Vital Course Concepts
• 1.2: Kinds of Inferences
• 1.3: Chapter 1 - Key Terms
• 1.E: Chapter One (Exercises)

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Think Again I: How to Understand Arguments

This course is part of Introduction to Logic and Critical Thinking Specialization

Taught in English

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Instructors: Dr. Walter Sinnott-Armstrong +1 more

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There are 5 modules in this course

In this course, you will learn what an argument is. The definition of argument will enable you to identify when speakers are giving arguments and when they are not. Next, you will learn how to break an argument into its essential parts, how to put them in order to reveal their connections, and how to fill in gaps in an argument by adding suppressed premises. By the end of this course, you will be better able to understand and appreciate arguments that you and other people present.

Suggested Readings: Students who want more detailed explanations or additional exercises or who want to explore these topics in more depth should consult Understanding Arguments: An Introduction to Informal Logic, Ninth Edition, Concise, Chapters 1-5, by Walter Sinnott-Armstrong and Robert Fogelin. Course Format: Each week will be divided into multiple video segments that can be viewed separately or in groups. There will be short ungraded quizzes after each segment (to check comprehension) and a longer graded quiz at the end of the course.

Welcome to the Specialization

Welcome to our specialization Introduction to Logic and Critical Thinking based on our Coursera course Think Again: How to Reason and Argue. This course-Think Again: How to Understand Arguments - is the first in a series of four courses. We are excited that you are taking this course, and we hope that you will stick around for all four courses in the series, because there is a great deal of important material to learn. In the series as a whole, you will learn how to analyze and evaluate arguments and how to avoid common mistakes in reasoning. These important skills will be useful to you in deciding what to believe and what to do in all areas of your life. We will also have plenty of fun. The first part of this course introduces the specialization and the course. It also clarifies some peculiarities you may find with this course. We encourage you to watch the "Introduction to the Specialization" video first as it will help you learn more from the materials that come later.

What's included

1 video 1 reading

1 video • Total 4 minutes

• Introduction to the Specialization • 4 minutes • Preview module

1 reading • Total 10 minutes

• Course Logistics (Start Here) • 10 minutes

How to Spot an Argument

In this week's material we will teach you how to identify arguments as opposed to abuse . We will define what an argument is, distinguish various purposes for which arguments are given (including persuasion, justification, and explanation), and discuss the material out of which arguments are made (language). The last three lectures this week are optional, but they are recommended for advanced students. LEARNING OUTCOMES: By the end of this week’s material, you will be able to :define what an argument ispull arguments out of larger texts distinguish various purposes of arguments. OPTIONAL READING: If you want more examples or more detailed discussions of these topics, we recommend Understanding Arguments, Ninth Edition<, Chapters 1-2.

10 videos 10 quizzes 12 discussion prompts

10 videos • Total 100 minutes

• Why Arguments Matter • 7 minutes • Preview module
• What Is an Argument? • 7 minutes
• What are Arguments Used For? Justification • 5 minutes
• Strong Arguments Don't Always Persuade Everyone • 8 minutes
• What Else are Arguments Used For? Explanation • 13 minutes
• What are Arguments Made Of? Language • 14 minutes
• Meaning • 9 minutes
• Linguistic Acts • 7 minutes
• Speech Acts • 9 minutes
• Conversational Acts • 17 minutes

10 quizzes • Total 300 minutes

• Why Arguments Matter • 30 minutes
• What Is an Argument? • 30 minutes
• What are Arguments Used For? Justification • 30 minutes
• Strong Arguments Don't Always Persuade Everyone • 30 minutes
• What Else are Arguments Used For? Explanation • 30 minutes
• What are Arguments Made Of? Language • 30 minutes
• Meaning • 30 minutes
• Linguistic Acts • 30 minutes
• Speech Acts • 30 minutes
• Conversational Acts • 30 minutes

12 discussion prompts • Total 120 minutes

• Share Your Thoughts: Reasons for Reasons • 10 minutes
• Share Your Thoughts: Prediction • 10 minutes
• Share Your Thoughts: Both Justification and Explanation? • 10 minutes
• Share Your Thoughts: Basic Explanations • 10 minutes
• Share Your Thoughts: Arguing Animals • 10 minutes
• Share Your Thoughts: Following Conventions • 10 minutes
• Share Your Thoughts: Meaning as Use • 10 minutes
• Share Your Thoughts: Reference and Description • 10 minutes
• Share Your Thoughts: Buffalos • 10 minutes
• Share Your Thoughts: When Can We Argue? • 10 minutes
• Share Your Thoughts: Metaphor and Irony • 10 minutes
• Share Your Thoughts: Jokes • 10 minutes

How to Untangle an Argument

This week’s material will focus on the special language in which arguments are formulated. We will investigate the functions of particular words, including premise and conclusion markers plus assuring, guarding, discounting, and evaluative terms. Identifying these words will enable students to separate arguments from the irrelevant verbiage that surrounds it and then to break the argument into parts and to identify what each part of an argument is doing. The lectures end with a detailed example that uses these tools to closely analyze an op-ed from a newspaper. LEARNING OUTCOMES: By the end of this week’s material, you will be able to: understand three levels of meaning. identify argument markers OPTIONAL READING: If you want more examples or more detailed discussions of these topics, we recommend Understanding Arguments, Ninth Edition, Chapters 3-4.

10 videos 9 quizzes 8 discussion prompts

10 videos • Total 129 minutes

• Argument Markers • 12 minutes • Preview module
• Standard Form • 3 minutes
• A Problem for Arguments • 12 minutes
• Assuring • 14 minutes
• Guarding • 8 minutes
• Discounting • 10 minutes
• Evaluation • 17 minutes
• Close Analysis (Part I) • 20 minutes
• Close Analysis (Part II) • 13 minutes
• More Close Analysis • 17 minutes

9 quizzes • Total 270 minutes

• Argument Markers • 30 minutes
• Standard Form • 30 minutes
• A Problem for Arguments • 30 minutes
• Assuring • 30 minutes
• Guarding • 30 minutes
• Discounting • 30 minutes
• Evaluation • 30 minutes
• Close Analysis (Part II) • 30 minutes
• More Close Analysis • 30 minutes

8 discussion prompts • Total 80 minutes

• Share Your Thoughts: Who Gives Reasons? • 10 minutes
• Share Your Thoughts: Standard Form • 10 minutes
• Share Your Thoughts: Numbering • 10 minutes
• Share Your Thoughts: Solving the Skeptical Regress • 10 minutes
• Share Your Thoughts: Abusive Assurances • 10 minutes
• Share Your Thoughts: "I Believe" • 10 minutes
• Share Your Thoughts: When to Discount Objections? • 10 minutes
• Share Your Thoughts: Positive and Negative Evaluation • 10 minutes

How to Reconstruct an Argument

This week’s material will teach you how to organize the parts of an argument in order to show how they fit into a structure of reasoning. The goal is to make the argument look as good as possible so that you can learn from it. We work through the main steps of reconstruction, including putting the premises and conclusion into a standard form, clarifying the premises and breaking them into parts, arranging the argument into stages or sub-arguments, adding suppressed premises where needed to make the argument valid, and assessing the argument for soundness. The lectures begin by defining the crucial notions of validity, soundness, and standard form. You will also learn to diagram alternative argument structures, including linear, branching, and joint structures. LEARNING OUTCOMES: By the end of this week’s material, you will be able to: label assuring, guarding, discounting, and evaluative terms determine whether an argument is valid or sound complete arguments by adding suppressed premises reconstruct arguments by and series of arguments, and classify argument structures. OPTIONAL READING: If you want more examples or more detailed discussions of these topics, we recommend <em>Understanding Arguments, Ninth Edition, Chapter 5.

11 videos 9 quizzes 6 discussion prompts

11 videos • Total 150 minutes

• Validity • 26 minutes • Preview module
• Soundness • 4 minutes
• Get Down to Basics • 21 minutes
• Sharpen Edges • 17 minutes
• Organize Parts • 14 minutes
• A Student Example: A Debate About Smartphones in Class • 11 minutes
• Fill in Gaps • 22 minutes
• Conclude • 2 minutes
• An Example of Reconstruction (Part I) • 9 minutes
• An Example of Reconstruction (Part II) • 9 minutes
• An Example of Reconstruction (Part III) • 10 minutes
• Validity • 30 minutes
• Soundness (Part I) • 30 minutes
• Soundness (Part II) • 30 minutes
• Get Down to Basics • 30 minutes
• Sharpen Edges • 30 minutes
• Organize Parts • 30 minutes
• Fill in Gaps • 30 minutes
• Conclude • 30 minutes
• An Example of Reconstruction • 30 minutes

6 discussion prompts • Total 60 minutes

• Share Your Thoughts: Determining Validity • 10 minutes
• Share Your Thoughts: Truth • 10 minutes
• Share Your Thoughts: Tangents and Repetition • 10 minutes
• Share Your Thoughts: Perfectly Clear • 10 minutes
• Share Your Thoughts: More Structures? • 10 minutes
• Share Your Thoughts: Suppressed Premises • 10 minutes

Catch-Up and Final Quiz

This week gives you time to catch up and review, because we realize that the previous weeks include a great deal of challenging material. It will also be provide enough time to take the final quiz as often as you want, with different questions each time. We explain the answers in each exam so that you can learn more and do better when you try the exam again. You may take the quiz as many times as you want in order to learn more and do better, with different questions each time. You will be able to retake the quiz three times every eight hours. You might not need to take more than one version of the exam if you do well enough on your first try. That is up to you. However many versions you take, we hope that all of the exams will provide additional learning experiences.

1 quiz • Total 30 minutes

• Final Quiz • 30 minutes

Duke University has about 13,000 undergraduate and graduate students and a world-class faculty helping to expand the frontiers of knowledge. The university has a strong commitment to applying knowledge in service to society, both near its North Carolina campus and around the world.

Recommended if you're interested in Philosophy

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Think Again II: How to Reason Deductively

Think again iii: how to reason inductively.

Introduction to Logic and Critical Thinking

Specialization

Think Again IV: How to Avoid Fallacies

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Showing 3 of 2908

2,908 reviews

Reviewed on Jul 5, 2018

I found this course very challenging as I find critical thinking very difficult. However this course was extremely rewarding and I will be taking the other three modules in the Think Again series.

Reviewed on Jun 16, 2021

Not a bad course at all! Even though I didn't pay for the course, I still very much came away from it learning something. The proff is very easy to understand and makes it interesting.

Reviewed on Aug 12, 2023

I really like the course. It has built the foundation of speaking and argumentation for me. Professor Walter Sinnott teaches complex things in an easy and comprehensive manner which is admirable.

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Frequently asked questions

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“I'd like to thank both professors for the course. It was fun, instructive, and I loved the input from people from all over the world, with their different views and backgrounds.”



“Somewhere in the first couple weeks of the course, I was ruminating over some concept or perhaps over one of the homework exercises and suddenly it occurred to me, "'Is this what thinking is?" Just to clarify, I come from a thinking family and have thought a lot about various concepts and issues throughout my life and career...but somehow I realized that, even though I seemed to be thinking all the time, I hadn't been doing this type of thinking for quite some time...so, thanks!”

“The rapport between Dr. Sinott-Armstrong and Dr. Neta and their senses of humor made the lectures engaging and enjoyable. Their passion for the subject was apparent and they were patient and thorough in their explanations.”



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• Logic and Critical Thinking (I Year I Semester)

Course Materials

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About Logic and Critical Thinking (I Year I Semester)

LOGIC AND CRITICAL THINKING MODULE COURSE

Course Highlights

The videos section of this course features a selection of video lectures and interviews of Logic and Critical Thinking (I Year I Semester) faculty from various Departments at KIoT.

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• Resource Library
• Critical-thinking

Education Standards

Cuny school of professional studies.

Learning Domain: Philosophy

Standard: Critical Thinking

PHIL 110: Critical Thinking - Course Reader

Phil 110: critical thinking - syllabus, test small .mp4 160 kb, critical thinking.

Materials for the zero-textbook-cost course PHIL 110 - Critical Thinking , offered by the School of Professional Studies, City University of New York, designed by Michael FitzGerald, Robert Robinson, and Judit Torok. (CUNY Pathways Flexible Common Core - Individual and Society)

The materials include

• the syllabus,
• a course reader compiled by Robert Robinson,
• video lectures created by Michael FitzGerald, and
• instructions for a scaffolded final project.

All materials are CC BY-NC-SA, except the course reader which is CC BY-ND. Note that some of the original OER materials from which the reader is compiled may be licensed differently (see the reader acknowledgements page for details).

Sample Syllabus for PHIL 110: Critical Thinking

course reader

Video lectures.

https://cunysps.ensemblevideo.com/Watch/PHIL110_Unit_0

https://cunysps.ensemblevideo.com/Watch/PHIL110_Unit_1

https://cunysps.ensemblevideo.com/Watch/x8G2XzKs

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Introduction to Logic and Critical Thinking

2016, Open textbook

An intro level text covering the basics of reasoning and argumentation, including some basic formal logic, and targeted at beginning undergraduates. I wrote it for a course I taught at Lansing Community College that covered both logic and critical thinking. It is an "open textbook" under a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0). https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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A characteristic feature of modern society is the ever-expanding information space. Hidden information attacks harm the lives of individuals and society in general. In this regard, studies of critical thinking seem particularly important to us. Therefore, critical thinking is interpreted in the academic discourse mainly in connection with the effort to cope with the growing amount of misinformation and hate speech. While teachers and policymakers consider critical thinking an important educational goal, many are unclear about developing this competency in a school setting. For many key competencies, the question is whether and how they can be acquired through planned educational courses/programs. Although there are specific training programs for critical thinking as a core competency, their design and effectiveness are scientifically controversial. Instruction in critical thinking becomes extremely important because it allows individuals to gain a more comprehensive understanding of...

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After critiquing the arguments against using formal logic to teach critical thinking, this paper argues that for theoretical, practical, and empirical reasons, instruction in the fundamentals of formal logic is essential for critical thinking, and so should be included in every class that purports to teach critical thinking.

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We give a brief introduction to the topic of this special issue and provide a summary of each article.

Mariusz Urbański

This paper describes the syllabus of an introductory course in logic for cognitive science students at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland, and offers some reflections on effective practice in teaching logic.

This is the Reader I compiled and used three times for ten-week courses, last during Hilary Term 2018.

Sandra Dwyer

John Corcoran

This short paper sketches one logician's opinion of some basic ideas that should be presented on the first days of any logic course. It treats the nature and goals of logic. It discusses what a student can hope to achieve through study of logic. And it warns of problems and obstacles a student will have to overcome or learn to live with. It introduces several key terms that a student will encounter in logic.

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