Expand+PHIL10160 Critical Thinking
Academic Year 2022/2023

"One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit. Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes their share. But we tend to take the situation for granted.” (Ha...

Hide-PHIL10160 Critical Thinking
Academic Year 2022/2023

"One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit. Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes their share. But we tend to take the situation for granted.” (Harry Frankfurt, 'On Bullshit').

Thinking is easy, but *reasoning* -- in particular, reasoning *well* - is hard. This course is concerned with the question: how might we reason better, so that we can have more accurate beliefs and make better choices?

In the first part of the course, we learn about how our cognitive biases make it hard for us to reason well, and what the typical characteristics of a good reasoner are; what an *argument* is, and what makes an argument either good or bad; what makes one claim *evidence* for another claim, and how we might fail in our search for evidence; and how to extract an argument from a piece of text, in order to assess whether it is good or bad.

In the second part of the course, we learn about rhetoric and the art of persuasion; bullshit; fake news; and conspiracy theories. Finally, we'll think about *paradoxes* (such as that generated by the statement ‘This sentence is not true’), which seem to threaten our most basic assumptions about good reasoning.

The course is taught by Dr. Daniel Esmonde Deasy (Assistant Professor, UCD School of Philosophy) and is delivered in the form of 24 one-hour lectures and 7 one-hour tutorials. Lectures will be delivered *live* during timetabled slots (and recorded for those who cannot attend). Each lecture will consist primarily in the presentation of material by the lecturer, as well as discussion of the material.

Learning Outcomes:
As a result of studying this course, students will learn to:

1. IDENTIFY key concepts in critical thinking such as 'reason', 'argument', 'premise', 'conclusion', 'evidence', 'valid', 'fallacy', 'cognitive bias' and 'paradox'
2. UNDERSTAND what makes an argument (logically) good or bad
3. RECONSTRUCT and ASSESS short arguments presented in texts
4. DISTINGUISH lies, bullshit, and rhetoric

Indicative Module Content:
The key topics in this course are:

1. Reasoning (good and bad)
2. Cognitive Biases (common patterns of thought that lead to bad reasoning)
3. Fallacies (commonly accepted patterns of bad reasoning)
4. Arguments (what they are; how they are structured)
5. Evidence (what it is; how it works; what makes it strong or weak)
6. Logical validity (a quality of arguments whose conclusions must be true if their premises are true)
7. Inductive strength (a quality of arguments whose conclusions are likely to be true given the truth of their premises)
8. Rhetoric (the art of persuasion)
9. Lies and Bullshit
10. Conspiracy theories and fake news
11. Paradoxes