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Critical Thinker Academy: Learn to Think Like a Philosopher

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  • 71,988 Students
  • Updated 7/2020
4.3
(6,311 Ratings)
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Course Information

Registration period
Year-round Recruitment
Course Level
Study Mode
Duration
19 Hour(s) 29 Minute(s)
Language
English
Taught by
Kevin deLaplante
Rating
4.3
(6,311 Ratings)

Course Overview

Critical Thinker Academy: Learn to Think Like a Philosopher

How to improve your grades, advance in your job and expand your mind -- by learning how to think for yourself!

For long-term success in school, business and life, learning HOW to think is far more important than learning WHAT to think.

Yet rather than serve as the core of any education worthy of a rational human being, we have relegated the teaching of logic, argument analysis and critical reasoning to specialty courses in universities that reach too few students, too late in their education.

In this course I share my growing understanding of these topics, with a focus on what is practically important and useful for developing as independent critical thinkers.

Currently the course contains over 200 videos totalling over 19 hours of viewing time!

Among the topics you will learn:

  • why critical thinking is important

  • the difference between logic and argumentation

  • what makes an argument good or bad

  • the importance of background knowledge for critical thinking

  • techniques of argument analysis and reconstruction

  • what our growing understanding of the human mind tells us about how we actually form beliefs and make decisions

  • how tribalism and political polarization affect our ability to think critically

  • how scientific debates often turn on the meanings of key terms, like "theory", "law", and "hypothesis"

  • how to reason about chance and uncertainty

  • how to write a good argumentative essay

  • how to cite sources and avoid plagiarism in your writing

and much more! This content is drawn from a variety of teaching resources I've developed over the past few years, including a video podcast.

It's important for you to know that I am continuing to add videos and course modules on a regular basis. This course will continue to grow and grow -- I have a LOT OF GROUND that I want to cover! This is ONLY THE BEGINNING!

Course Content

  • 21 section(s)
  • 207 lecture(s)
  • Section 1 Introductions
  • Section 2 Why Critical Thinking is Important
  • Section 3 The Five Pillars of Critical Thinking
  • Section 4 Cognitive Biases and Critical Thinking
  • Section 5 Tribalism, Polarization and Critical Thinking
  • Section 6 Cognitive Biases, Tribalism and Politics
  • Section 7 Special Topic: Critical Thinking About Science: The Vocabulary of Science
  • Section 8 Special Topics
  • Section 9 Basic Concepts in Logic and Argumentation
  • Section 10 Basic Concepts in Propositional Logic
  • Section 11 Formal Fallacies: Common Valid and Invalid Argument Forms
  • Section 12 Informal Fallacies: A Guided Tour
  • Section 13 Reasoning with Probabilities: What is Probability?
  • Section 14 Reasoning with Probabilities: The Rules
  • Section 15 Fallacies of Probability and Judgment
  • Section 16 Coincidences: When the Impossible Becomes Inevitable
  • Section 17 The Gambler's Fallacy: Bias, Randomness and the Illusion of Control
  • Section 18 The Small Sample Fallacy
  • Section 19 How to Write a Good Argumentative Essay
  • Section 20 How to Cite Sources and Avoid Plagiarism
  • Section 21 Bonus Lecture

What You’ll Learn

  • fundamental concepts of critical thinking (logic, argument analysis, rhetoric, reasoning with probabilities, the importance of background knowledge, etc.), the importance of critical thinking for personal development, participation in democratic society, and the pursuit of wisdom, the role that critical thinking principles play in good essay writing, how cognitive biases make us prone to errors in how we form beliefs and make judgments, how our tribal psychology and political polarization affect our ability to think critically, how debates in science often turn on the meanings of key terms, like "theory", "fact", "hypothesis" and "law", and much more!

Skills covered in this course


Reviews

  • F
    Franklin Robiso Jr
    5.0

    this is awesome

  • T
    Tonie Jade Mendez
    5.0

    This is the first philosophy course I watched online (I wish I can take a formal philosophy course in a university when money is no longer an issue) that actually challenges me TO THINK--and to doubt my own capacity to know.

  • M
    Mehmet Ozdas
    5.0

    Great course

  • G
    Gregory J. McFann
    4.5

    I've seen all this stuff at various times and places, but nice to have it presented all together. What is interesting is that as a PhD, it is assumed I am an expert in critical thinking, yet there is no explicit training in the standard PhD program (in STEM at least). Nor are there explicit courses in scientific methodology, statistical inference, or scientific ethics (end of rant).

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