CRITICAL THINKING

The course aims to provide students with thinking tools, which ought to enable them to delve into different fields of knowledge and scholarship in a critical - i.e. connscious and autonomous - way. The methods and concepts addressed by the course can be applied to different areas, such as politics, law, economics, science, religion, and philosophy.

The learning result of the course is the ability to analyse arguments from the point of view of their reliability; to recognise their assumptions, conclusions, and forms of justification; to construct and formulate rigorous arguments; to recognise fallacious arguments and to distinguish between credible and non-credible sources of information; to evaluate what type of reasoning is suitable in a certain circumstance. Students are also going to become acquainted with the most common strategies to debunk and discover incorrect arguments.

The only precondition is the will to learn, to reflect, and to discuss one's ideas openly, sincerely, and frankly.

1 – Language and Rhetoric
The difference between convincing and persuading?
The role of reasons as justifications in learning and action
Evaluating reasons
2 – Definitions
The critical function of definitions
Types of definitions
Recognising and improving definitions
3 – Claims
Claims and truth
Claims and credibility
Claims and knowledge
Other sources of information
4 – Arguments
Premises, conclusions, assumptions
Recognising and reconstructing arguments
The principle of charity
Deductive arguments
Inductive arguments
Other forms of arguments
5 – Argument forms
Argument forms and validity
Argument forms and soundness
Elementary arguments and complex arguments
Arguments involving probability
6 – Applications: formulating and evaluating arguments
Scientific arguments
Moral arguments
Aesthetic arguments
Political arguments
Recognising fallacies

Bowell,Tracy, Cowan, Robert, Kemp, Gary: Critical Thinking: A Concise Guide, Routledge, 2019
Fisher, Alec: Critical Thinking: An Introduction, Cambridge University Press, 2011

Active participation during learning sessions
Mid-course tests
Final test

Lectures by the teacher
Discussions
Excercises
Discussion of case studies

written and oral