Think Again II: How to Reason Deductively

Duke University via Coursera

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Provider

Coursera
Pricing

Free Online Course (Audit)
Languages

English
Certificate

Paid Certificate Available
Duration & workload

13 hours
Sessions

On-Demand
Level

Beginner
Subtitles

Arabic, French, Portuguese, Italian, German, Russian, English, Spanish, Thai, Indonesian, Kazakh, Hindi, Swedish, Korean, Greek, Chinese, Ukrainian, Japanese, Polish, Dutch, Turkish, Hungarian, Bengali, Pashto, Urdu, Azerbaijani, Farsi

Found in

Part of

Introduction to Logic and Critical Thinking

Overview

Class Central Tips

Deductive arguments are supposed to be valid in the sense that the premises guarantee that the conclusion is true. In this course, you will learn how to use truth-tables and Venn diagrams to represent the information contained in the premises and conclusion of an argument so that you can determine whether or not the argument is deductively valid. Suggested Readings: Students who want more detailed explanations or additional exercises or who want to explore these topics in more depth should consult Understanding Arguments: An Introduction to Informal Logic, Ninth Edition, Concise, Chapters 6 and 7 by Walter Sinnott-Armstrong and Robert Fogelin. Course Format: Each week will be divided into multiple video segments that can be viewed separately or in groups. There will be short ungraded quizzes after each segment (to check comprehension) and a longer graded quiz at the end of the course.

Syllabus

Welcome to the Course

Welcome to Think Again: How to Reason Deductively! This course is the second in the specialization Introduction to Logic and Critical Thinking, based on our original Coursera course titled Think Again: How to Reason and Argue. We are excited that you are taking this course, and we hope that you will stick around for all four courses in the series, because there is a great deal of important material to learn.In the series as a whole, you will learn how to evaluate deductive arguments. What is it for a deductive to be “valid”? And how can you tell the difference between deductive arguments that are valid and those that aren’t? In this course, we will answer these questions. The first part of this course introduces the series and the course. It also clarifies some peculiarities you may find with this course. We encourage you to watch the "Introduction to the Specialization" video first as it will help you learn more from the materials that come later.

Propositional Logic and Truth Tables

This module we will teach you how such phrases as “and”, “or”, “if”, and “not” can work to guarantee the validity or invalidity of the deductive arguments in which they occur. It will also teach you to understand the functioning of these phrases using a device called a “truth-table”, which shows how the truth or falsity of propositions that use these phrases depends upon the truth or falsity of the propositions contained within it. We highly recommend that you practice the skills that you will learn in this module by doing the puzzles at betapuzzle.sonjara.com. If you want more examples or more detailed discussions of these topics, we recommend Understanding Arguments, Ninth Edition, Chapter 6.

Categorical Logic and Syllogisms

This module will teach you how such phrases as “all”, “some”, and “none” can work to guarantee the validity or invalidity of the deductive arguments in which they occur. It will also teach you to understand the functioning of these phrases using a device called a “Venn Diagram”, which shows how the truth or falsity of propositions that use these phrases depends upon the truth or falsity of other propositions that use these phrases. We highly recommend that you practice the skills that you will learn in this module by doing the puzzles at http://philgames-neta.apps.unc.edu. If you want more examples or more detailed discussions of these topics, we recommend Understanding Arguments, Ninth Edition, Chapter 7.

Representing Information

In this module, we will teach you how to use the tools that you’ve learned about in the preceding modules in order to represent information. Information can be communicated in very different ways – by means of different languages or signaling systems – but no matter how that information is communicated, it can be important to use that information in reasoning. In this module, you will learn how to reason from information that is communicated directly by means of truth-tables or Venn Diagrams.

Catch-Up and Final Quiz

This module gives you time to catch up and review, because we realize that the previous modules include a great deal of challenging material. It will also be provide enough time to take the final quiz as often as you want, with different questions each time. We explain the answers in each exam so that you can learn more and do better when you try the exam again. You may take the quiz as many times as you want in order to learn more and do better, with different questions each time. You will be able to retake the quiz three times every eight hours. You might not need to take more than one version of the exam if you do well enough on your first try. That is up to you. However many versions you take, we hope that all of the exams will provide additional learning experiences.

Taught by

Walter Sinnott-Armstrong and Ram Neta

Reviews

4.0 rating, based on 5 Class Central reviews

4.3 rating at Coursera based on 383 ratings

Start your review of Think Again II: How to Reason Deductively

Safitry Nur Fatmawati @Safitrynf25

Mempelajari bahasa Inggris tidak hanya dapat dilakukan di sekolah atau lembaga kursus bahasa Inggris saja.

Namun, kamu juga bisa mempelajari sendiri dengan mencari materi belajar bahasa inggris yang bisa kamu temukan di internet, seperti website belajar bahasa Inggris maupun video pembelajaran bahasa inggris.

Semakin sering kamu mempelajari bahasa Inggris, kamu akan terbiasa menggunakan bahasa Inggris dan juga kemampuanmu akan jadi lebih baik.
Kohei I @Kohei

Overall, this course was a good introduction to deductive logic. My impression was that the content was quite abstract, like math or a programming language. Compared to "Think Again I," I found the materials less applicable to everyday life. Let's…

Overall, this course was a good introduction to deductive logic. My impression was that the content was quite abstract, like math or a programming language. Compared to "Think Again I," I found the materials less applicable to everyday life. Let's see how this develops to the remainder of the sequential courses.

The professor does a good job in explaining the main ideas and intuition. For example, one of the lectures discussed why bother using truth tables and Venn diagrams, when you can express the same information in ordinary languages. Also, it did well in explaining how the truth table of the conditional was derived.

Nevertheless, the course has a lot of room for improvement. For example, the definitions on syllogism was quite abstract, so an example would had been helpful. PPT slides could had been used more effectively, as it was often challenging to follow the explanations on the truth tables. Discussion on the forum was quite poor, with no support from the TA or the mentor.

If you are taking this course as one of the a sequence of "Think Again," this can serve as a good introduction to deductive logic. After taking this, I am looking forward to enroll in "Think Again III."
19RU1A0417 GONAVARAM BALA AJAY KUMAR

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Zunaira Yousaf

You will take a course from it, you will be given a free course and a certificate will also be given, you can learn and earn from it.
Tidehollow @tidehollow