Critical Reasoning: A Romp through the Foothills of Logic (Online)

Reasoning enables us to acquire knowledge, to persuade others and to evaluate their arguments. But only if we reason well. We shall be learning how to recognise, evaluate, construct and analyse arguments, and how to recognise common fallacies (bad arguments that look like good arguments). This will give you confidence in your ability to reason well.

Reasoning is central to the life of a human being. Without it we would be restricted to learning through our senses and immediate experiences. Reasoning can take us, literally, to the moon and back. Reasoning enables us to theorise about our world, to persuade others of our theories and to evaluate theirs. But reasoning can do this only if we do it well. Bad reasoning takes us nowhere. In this course we shall be looking at how to recognise and evaluate arguments, how to construct and analyse arguments and how to recognise common fallacies (bad arguments that look like good arguments). By the end of this course you should be more confident about your everyday reasoning, your ability to present a good case to others, and your ability to distinguish a good argument from a bad one.