- logic
- Critical Thinking
- reason
- Evaluation
- Interpretation
- Language
- Linguistics
Introduction to Logic and Critical Thinking Specialization
Think Again: How to Reason and Argue. Learn how to recognize and make well reasoned arguments.
Offered By
What you will learn
understand and appreciate arguments that you and other people present
determine whether or not an argument is deductively valid
analyze and assess five common forms of inductive arguments
recognize fallacies
Skills you will gain
About this Specialization
Applied Learning Project
This specialization includes four courses and an optional final project. In the final project you will construct your own argument on any topic that interests you. You will develop a thesis statement and write an argument of 400–600 words to support your thesis.
No prior experience required.
No prior experience required.
How the Specialization Works
Take Courses
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Hands-on Project
Every Specialization includes a hands-on project. You'll need to successfully finish the project(s) to complete the Specialization and earn your certificate. If the Specialization includes a separate course for the hands-on project, you'll need to finish each of the other courses before you can start it.
Earn a Certificate
When you finish every course and complete the hands-on project, you'll earn a Certificate that you can share with prospective employers and your professional network.
There are 4 Courses in this Specialization
Think Again I: How to Understand Arguments
In this course, you will learn what an argument is. The definition of argument will enable you to identify when speakers are giving arguments and when they are not. Next, you will learn how to break an argument into its essential parts, how to put them in order to reveal their connections, and how to fill in gaps in an argument by adding suppressed premises. By the end of this course, you will be better able to understand and appreciate arguments that you and other people present.
Think Again II: How to Reason Deductively
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.
Think Again III: How to Reason Inductively
Want to solve a murder mystery? What caused your computer to fail? Who can you trust in your everyday life? In this course, you will learn how to analyze and assess five common forms of inductive arguments: generalizations from samples, applications of generalizations, inference to the best explanation, arguments from analogy, and causal reasoning. The course closes by showing how you can use probability to help make decisions of all sorts.
Think Again IV: How to Avoid Fallacies
We encounter fallacies almost everywhere we look. Politicians, salespeople, and children commonly use fallacies in order to get you to think whatever they want you to think. It’s important to learn to recognize fallacies so that you can avoid being fooled by them. It’s also important to learn about fallacies so that you avoid making fallacious arguments yourself. This course will show you how to identify and avoid many of the fallacies that lead people astray.
Offered by
Duke University
Duke University has about 13,000 undergraduate and graduate students and a world-class faculty helping to expand the frontiers of knowledge. The university has a strong commitment to applying knowledge in service to society, both near its North Carolina campus and around the world.
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