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Description
Given the wealth of information we are exposed to each day, developing skills in quickly assessing conflicting opinions, arguments, and scientific research, while being attentive to our own tendencies towards error, is crucial. In this course, students cultivate six critical thinking skills: (1) Extracting arguments from news, social media, and academic sources; (2) evaluating arguments for correctness; (3) evaluating statistical evidence in scientific research for correctness; (4) constructing counterexamples by using thought experiments; (5) identifying cognitive and emotional biases; and (6) constructing models of parts of the world, such as the transmission of information through media outlets. Because this course has more focus on logic than other humanities courses, there are no readings. Students work on analyzing various short texts with an eye to figuring out the reasoning and assessing its soundness. Students develop the above skills working with concrete cases, and near the end of the course apply what they have learned to the task of solving a Rubik?s cube. There are no reading assignments, but students should expect to come to class prepared to work in small groups on very challenging problems, and to submit weekly homework assignments comprised of approximately 10 questions about the course content (which take the form of T/F, multiple choice, or short essays).
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Class Number
1637
Credits
3
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