We are constantly being given reasons to do and believe things: to believe that we should buy a product, support a cause, accept a job, judge someone innocent or guilty, that fairness requires us to do some household chore, and so on. Assessing the reasons we are given to do or believe these things calls upon us to think critically and logically.

Even though we’re called upon to use our critical and logical thinking skills all the time, most of us are not that good at it. This free online course aims to help you develop and improve these skills.

The Program

1. Identify common flaws in belief construction.
2. Recognise and reconstruct arguments.
3. Evaluate arguments as being good or bad.
4. Analyse arguments using basic logical tools.
5. Apply basic logical strategies in areas such as science, moral theories and law.

What will you learn

• Explore key concepts in logical and critical thinking.
• Apply key concepts in logical and critical thinking.
• Identify obstacles to logical and critical thinking.
• Identify the components of a good argument.
• Produce an argument in standard form.
• Classify deductive and non-deductive arguments.
• Evaluate arguments based on criteria such as validity, strength and cogency.
• Interpret scientific, moral and legal arguments.
• Develop an argument «in the wild».
• Assess arguments charitably.