Critical Thinking: Fundamentals of Good Reasoning
Complete Syllabus 2023
Objective
The objective of the course is to improve the student's ability in the basic skills of
critical thinking: how to recognize arguments, how to interpret them, how to
evaluate them, and how to construct them.
Structure
The course is nominally divided into thirteen weeks—but it is not necessary to
follow this schedule. Although the given order and pace are recommended,
everyone is free to proceed at his or her own pace, in whatever order he or she
prefers (even doing it all in one big binge!).
Outline
Part I
Week 1. Arguments: What They Are and How to Recognize Them
Chapter 1. Thinking about Arguments
Lesson 1. What’s “Critical Thinking?”
Lesson 2. What are Arguments Made Of?
Lesson 3. From Premises to Conclusions
Chapter 2. Recognizing Arguments
Lesson 4. Recognizing Arguments: Introduction
Lesson 5. Argument vs. The Text Containing It
Lesson 6. Recognizing Conclusions
Lesson 7. Arguments vs. Explanations
Week 2. Interpretation: Saying What the Argument Is
Chapter 3. Argument Diagrams
Lesson 8. Argument Diagrams: Introduction
Lesson 9. More about Argument Diagrams
Lesson 10. Argument Diagrams: Examples
Chapter 4. Non-Inferential Support
Lesson 11. Hedges
Lesson 12. Disclaimers
Lesson 13. Examples
Week 3. Interpretation: Reading Between the Lines
Chapter 5. Rhetorical Language
Lesson 14. Rhetorical Language
Lesson 15. Referential Attribution
Chapter 6. Interpretation
Lesson 16. Principles of Interpretation
Lesson 17. Implicit Premises
Week 4. Evaluation: Arguments Good and Bad
Chapter 7. Good Arguments
Lesson 18. What’s a Good Argument?
Lesson 19. More Virtues of Arguments
Chapter 8. Ignoratio Elenchi
Lesson 20. Argument Ad Hominem
Lesson 21. Argument Ad Verecundiam
Lesson 22. Argument Ad Populum
Lesson 23. Argument Ad Ignorantiam
Lesson 24. Argument Ad Baculum and Ad Misericordiam
Week 5
• Quiz 1
• Example 1
Part II
Week 6. Deductive Inferences: The Logic of Sets
Chapter 9. The Logic of Sets
Lesson 25. Venn Diagrams
Lesson 26. Beyond Venn
Week 7. Deductive Inferences: Conditional and Disjunctive Arguments
Chapter 10. Conditional Arguments
Lesson 27. Modus Ponens
Lesson 28. Modus Tollens
Lesson 29. Conditionals
Lesson 30. Reductio Ad Absurdum
Chapter 11. Disjunctive Arguments
Lesson 31. Process of Elimination
Lesson 32. Separation of Cases
Week 8. Deductive Inferences: Truth Trees and Relations
Chapter 12. Truth Trees
Lesson 33. Truth Trees: An Example
Lesson 34. How to Grow Truth Trees
Lesson 35. Truth Trees: Another Example
Chapter 13. Relations
Lesson 36. Reflexive Relations
Lesson 37. Symmetric Relations
Lesson 38. Transitive Relations
Week 9
• Quiz 2
• Example 2
Part III
Week 10. Inductive Inferences
Chapter 14. Induction
Lesson 39. Inductive Generalization
Lesson 40. What's a Good Sample?
Lesson 41. The New Riddle of Induction
Chapter 15. Causal Generalization
Lesson 42. From Induction to Causation
Lesson 43. Evaluating Causal Generalizations
Week 11. Inductive Inferences: Analogy and Explanation
Chapter 16. Argument from Analogy
Lesson 44. Argument from Analogy: Basics
Lesson 45. Argument from Analogy: Examples
Lesson 46. Who Needs Analogues?
Chapter 17. Inference to the Best Explanation
Lesson 47. Inference to the Best Explanation
Lesson 48. Experimentation
Week 12. Production
Chapter 18. Constructing Arguments
Lesson 49. Building an Argument
Lesson 50. Writing Up an Argument
Week 13
• Quiz 3
• Example 3
Lessons and Check-up Questions
Each lesson consists of a short video together with some glossary entries and Check-
up Questions. The Check-up Questions are there to help you make sure that you
understand the basic ideas of the lesson. Thus, it is advisable not to go on to the next
lesson until you have correctly answered the Check-up Questions of the previous lesson. If
you give an incorrect answer, you can always try again. The Check-up Questions
count for 25% of the course grade.
Examples to Share
At the end of each of the three parts of the course, learners are invited to share
examples of particular items discussed in the lessons. After assessing their own
work according to detailed instructions, students will then be invited to polish up
their examples and share them on a discussion forum. Students will receive full
credit for submitting the examples and the self-evaluation according to the given
instructions. Each of the three examples counts for 5% of the course grade.
Quizzes
Also at the end of each part of the course there is a multiple-choice open-book quiz
of ten questions. You only get one try for each quiz question, and the whole quiz must
be completed in two hours, so it is important to make sure you are well prepared
before you start. Once you start, the clock starts ticking and cannot be paused. Each
of the three quizzes counts for 20% of the course grade.
Discussion Forums
For questions and comments on the course material there is a “General” discussion
forum. Students are encouraged to deepen their understanding by participating in
the discussion. There will also be discussion forums for “Examples to Share,” as
well as a “Technical Help” forum. All participants in the course are cordially invited
to begin by introducing themselves in the “Meet ’n Greet” discussion forum—Who
are you? What do you like? What brings you to this course?
Assessment
The course grade is based on the following:
• 50 review questions 25%
• Three examples 15%
• Three quizzes 60%
Due Diligence
Students are responsible for reading the course announcements.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is presenting somebody else’s work as your own. This includes all
instances of copying without citing the source, whether in whole or in part, whether
word for word or in other words, whether with permission or not. In the academic
world, where a person’s words and ideas constitute that person’s being, there is no
worse a crime.
