Reasoning is important. This course will teach you how to do it
well. You will learn some simple but vital rules to follow in thinking
about any topic at all and some common and tempting mistakes to avoid in
reasoning. We will discuss how to identify, analyze, and evaluate
arguments by other people (including politicians, used car salesmen, and
teachers) and how to construct arguments of your own in order to help you
decide what to believe or what to do. These skills will be useful in dealing
with whatever matters most to you.
Think Again: How to Reason and Argue
This course may be unavailable.
Overview
Syllabus
PART I: HOW TO ANALYZE ARGUMENTS
Week 1: How to Spot an Argument
Week 2: How to Untangle an Argument
Week 3: How to Reconstruct an Argument
Quiz #1: At the end of Week 3, students will take their first quiz.
PART II: HOW TO EVALUATE DEDUCTIVE ARGUMENTS
Week 4: Propositional Logic and Truth Tables
Week 5: Categorical Logic and Syllogisms
Week 6: Representing Information
Quiz #2: At the end of Week 6, students will take their second quiz.
PART III: HOW TO EVALUATE INDUCTIVE ARGUMENTS
Week 7: Inductive Arguments
Week 8: Causal Reasoning
Week 9: Chance and Choice
Quiz #3: At the end of Week 9, students will take their third quiz.
PART IV: HOW TO MESS UP ARGUMENTS
Week 10: Fallacies of Unclarity
Week 11: Fallacies of Relevance and of Vacuity
Week 12: Refutation
Quiz #4: At the end of Week 12, students will take their fourth quiz.
Taught by
Walter Sinnott-Armstrong and Ram Neta
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Reviews
4.2 rating, based on 32 Class Central reviews
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The lectures take quite a lot of time compared to the quizzes. The difficulty level is not very consistent. Some of the lectures and quizzes are really boring and repetitive, but that could just be me. I find the topic itself is very interesting. And even though I'm not always enjoying every bit, I do notice when I mechanically work through the course material, the material sticks which helps me to apply it outside the course which is the reason I took the course in the first place.
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Well, it was a course in logic. But logic doesn't have to be this dull.
Some parts were well done, some so unclear or confusing that students were swapping web sites that explained much better what the profs were trying to teach.
It was also poorly sub-titled, many thought it was going to be course in rhetoric, which may have contributed to the high dropout rate. -
This course started of stormingly well, with Prof Sinnott-Armstrong providing a whole load of wackiness in the way he delivers the course. Unfortunately the content started to go rather downhill after that, and I found Prof Neta's style of teaching particularly difficult to follow.
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This was a fantastic course, getting my mind actually thinking for the first time in ages (I didn't know it wasn't until I took the course). Even if you don't use the logic or "formulas" a lot in the future, it's great training for life in general. We're talking about decisions/stuff we do every day. An important course.
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I recommend that if you take this course, you take no other course at the same time. Heavy in video lectures.
I didn't pass this course. With all the time I put into it. It was tough and time consuming. I will redo this course when I have no distractions. -
Engaging, interesting, amazing, fun, and sometimes changelling. I had a great time and now I am a better thinker. A must.
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Excellent entertaining class that doesn't demand much of your time.
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I found the course interesting but quite slow-paced. The lecturers often repeat themselves and they give lots of examples. So on the bright side, it did occassionally feel like being in school again (looking out of the window, waiting for something to Happen while the teacher goes on and on :-) But other than that it's a pretty good course. Lots of exercises to help you stay involved, well-structured, not-confusing. Also, it is obvious that the lecturers had a great time in creating this course, which is sweet, and the positive vibes are definitely contagious.
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Sorry this course is more annoying than useful. The explanations are often confusing, the videos go off on tangents, use way too complicated examples, and I found the videos about language completely irrelevant to the topic. In the mid-video questions the material is often asked before it has been explained, making the course quite a frustrating experience.
(Dropped it at the 7th video of the 1st week.) -
I enjoyed this class mainly because of the way Walter and Ram had fun with their real world examples. I might have had an easier time than some because I'd seen the material before through self-study. The course title I think confused many people into thinking this course was about public presentation or something. It is not! It is a standard "Introduction To Logic" course with fun professors.
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A nice course overall. This is an introduction-level course on logistic. The contents are very easy and the teachers give many vivid examples to make the concepts more accessible. It's useful for people who have not been involved in learning for a long time, but not suitable for undergraduates and graduates who are active in learning and researching.
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Very good course. Not easy though but worth it. It manages to mix logic, rhetoric, statistics in a very interesting wayl
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Outstanding course! Many thanks to professors, who made it fun and engaging!
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I suppose I "partially completed" this course, but since I elected to remove it from my coursera enrollments, I am really a conscientious "dropper". The videos were interesting, and the little level of wackiness made them more interesting, but the assessments felt incongruous with the methodology of teaching, and they were missed opportunities for further learning.
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