Reason and Paradox

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

In this introductory critical reasoning course we'll learn how to argue well, and how to show when others are arguing badly. In particular, we'll learn to spot bad arguments - 'fallacies' - and rhetorical devices that can be used to trick us into accepting things we shouldn't. We'll also learn about 'inductively strong' and 'logically valid' arguments, which provide good reasons for accepting their conclusions. We'll learn how to check whether ordinary arguments are logically valid by translating them into a simple but powerful logical language. We'll think about some of the ways in which we might reason badly, even when we don't mean to (for example as a result of 'cognitive biases'). Finally, we'll think about paradoxes, such as that generated by the statement `This sentence is not true'. How do we solve them? What if we can't? And do they show that we need to rethink our approach to logic?