Introductions
  • What People Are Saying ...
  • How to Use The Course Materials
Why Critical Thinking is Important
  • Why Critical Thinking is Important - PDF Ebook
  • Logical Self-Defense
  • Personal Empowerment
  • Liberal Democracy and Civic Duty
  • Philosophy and the Search for Wisdom
The Five Pillars of Critical Thinking
  • The Five Pillars of Critical Thinking - PDF Ebook
  • The Five Pillars of Critical Thinking
  • Logic for Critical Thinkers
  • Argumentation versus Rhetoric
  • Critical Thinking's Dirty Secret
  • What Critical Thinkers Can Learn From Good Actors
Cognitive Biases and Critical Thinking
  • Cognitive Biases and Critical Thinking - PDF Ebook
  • Cognitive Biases: Introduction
  • Cognitive Biases and the Authority of Science
  • Cognitive Biases and the Evolution of Reason
Tribalism, Polarization and Critical Thinking
  • Introduction
  • Belief, Identity and Resistance: Introduction to the Core Belief Model
  • What is Tribalism? Why is it Dangerous?
  • Our Tribal Intelligence: Personal vs Group Knowledge
  • In Our Tribe We Trust: How Group Identities Shape Our Thinking
  • Appendix to "Our Tribal Intelligence": The Knowledge Illusion
Cognitive Biases, Tribalism and Politics
  • Value Pluralism: We Care About Many Kinds of Values
  • Tribalism and the Focusing Illusion
  • Polarization and Politics: How it Impairs Our Critical Thinking Faculties
Special Topic: Critical Thinking About Science: The Vocabulary of Science
  • Introduction
  • Is Evolution a Theory, a Fact, or Both?
  • Overview
  • An Important Distinction: Epistemically Loaded versus Neutral Language
  • "Theory" as Down-Player
  • "Theory" as Up-Player
  • Why We Need an Epistemically Neutral Concept of "Theory"
  • A Neutral Definition of "Theory": A Classical (but incomplete) Story
  • A Neutral Definition of "Theory": A More Sophisticated Story
  • "You Can't Deny the Facts": An Epistemically Loaded Definition of "Fact"
  • "I Had the Facts Wrong": An Epistemically Neutral Definition of "Fact"
  • Can There Be Theoretical Facts?
  • Epistemically Loaded Definitions of "Law"
  • Examples of Laws in Biology and Psychology
  • Examples of Laws in Astronomy and Physics
  • Unpacking the Neutral Concept of "Law"
  • But Are There Any Laws?
  • A Quick Word: Are Laws Explanatory?
  • "That's Just a Hypothesis": An Epistemically Loaded Definition of "Hypothesis"
  • An Epistemically Neutral Definition of "Hypothesis"
  • Introduction: What is a Model?
  • Maps and Models
  • Models as Tools For Reasoning About the World
  • How Equations Can Be Models
  • Is There a Difference Between a Model and a Theory?
  • Introduction: Theories, Models, Truth and Reality
  • The Challenge of Interpreting Scientific Theories
  • Prediction and Truth: Lessons from Ptolemy
  • Prediction and Truth: Lessons From the Kinetic Theory of Gases
  • Assignment: Critique a 7 Minute Video on the Vocabulary of Science
  • Here's the Video: "Fact vs. Theory vs. Hypothesis vs. Law ... EXPLAINED!"
  • 1. The Motivation For the Video
  • 2. "Scales of Truthiness"
  • 3. The Fundamental Error
  • 4. The Problem With Defining Facts in Terms of Observations
  • 5. Problems With Defining Hypotheses as Starting Points For Inquiry
  • 6. Problems With Defining Theories as Well-Supported
  • 7. Problems With Defining Evolution as an Observable Fact
  • 8. Problems With Defining Laws in Terms of Observations
  • 9. Can Laws Explain, or Do They Just Describe? Kepler, Newton and Einstein
  • 10. Analyzing the Last Slide
  • 11. Who is to Blame?
Special Topics
  • Critical Thinking About Conspiracies - PDF Ebook
  • Critical Thinking About Conspiracies (I): Introduction
  • Critical Thinking About Conspiracies (II): The Argument for Default Skepticism
  • Critical Thinking About Conspiracies (III): Mind Control and Falsifiability
  • Causation, God and the Big Bang - PDF Ebook
  • Causation, God and the Big Bang
  • Five Reasons to Major in Philosophy - PDF Ebook
  • Five Reasons to Major in Philosophy
Basic Concepts in Logic and Argumentation
  • Basic Concepts in Logic and Argumentation - PDF Ebook
  • What is an Argument?
  • What is an Argument?
  • What is a Claim, or Statement?
  • What is a Claim, or Statement?
  • What is a Good Argument? (I)
  • What is a Good Argument? (I)
  • Identifying Premises and Conclusions
  • Identifying Premises and Conclusions
  • The Truth Condition
  • The Truth Condition
  • The Logic Condition
  • The Logic Condition
  • Valid vs Invalid Arguments
  • Valid vs Invalid Arguments