Think Again IV: How to Avoid Fallacies
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Think Again IV: How to Avoid Fallacies
Duke University
Об этом курсе
4.6
Оценки: 118
How to Avoid Fallacies
Think Again: How to Reason and Argue
Reasoning is important. This series of four short courses will teach you how to do it well. You will learn simple but vital rules to follow in thinking about any topic at all and common and tempting mistakes to avoid in reasoning. We will discuss how to identify, analyze, and evaluate arguments by other people (including politicians, used car salesmen, and teachers) and how to construct arguments of your own in order to help you decide what to believe or what to do. These skills will be useful in dealing with whatever matters most to you.
Courses at a Glance:
All four courses in this series are offered through sessions which run every four weeks. We suggest sticking to the weekly schedule to the best of your ability. If for whatever reason you fall behind, feel free to re-enroll in the next session.We also suggest that you start each course close to the beginning of a month in order to increase the number of peers in the discussion forums who are working on the same material as you are. While each course can be taken independently, we suggest you take the four courses in order.
Course 1 - Think Again I: How to Understand Arguments
Course 2 - Think Again II: How to Reason Deductively
Course 3 - Think Again III: How to Reason Inductively
Course 4 - Think Again IV: How to Avoid Fallacies
About This Course in the Series:
We encounter fallacies almost everywhere we look. Politicians, salespeople, and children commonly use fallacies in order to get us to think what they want us to think. Think Again: Fallacies will show how to identify and avoid many of the fallacies that people use to get us to think the way they want us to think.
In this course, you will learn about fallacies. Fallacies are arguments that suffer from one or more common but avoidable defects: equivocation, circularity, vagueness, etc. It’s important to learn about fallacies so that you can recognize them when you see them, and not be fooled by them. It’s also important to learn about fallacies so that you avoid making fallacious arguments yourself.
Suggested Readings
Students who want more detailed explanations or additional exercises or who want to explore these topics in more depth should consult Understanding Arguments: An Introduction to Informal Logic, Ninth Edition, Concise, Chapters 13-17, by Walter Sinnott-Armstrong and Robert Fogelin.
Course Format
Each week will be divided into multiple video segments that can be viewed separately or in groups. There will be short ungraded quizzes after each segment (to check comprehension) and a longer graded quiz at the end of the course.
Программа курса: что вы изучите
1
Раздел
Welcome to the Course
Welcome to Think Again: How to Avoid Fallacies! This course is the fourth in a series of four courses jointly titled Think Again: How to Reason and Argue. We are excited that you are taking this course, and we hope that you will take all four courses in the series, because there is a great deal of important material to learn. In the series as a whole, you learn how to analyze and evaluate arguments and how to avoid common mistakes in reasoning. These important skills will be useful to you in deciding what to believe and what to do in all areas of your life. We encounter fallacies almost everywhere we look. Politicians, salespeople, and children commonly use fallacies in order to get us to think what they want us to think. Think Again: How to Avoid Fallacies will show how to identify and avoid many of the fallacies that people use to get us to think the way they want us to think. The first part of this course introduces the series and the course. It also clarifies some peculiarities you may find with this course. We encourage you to watch the "Introduction to the Course" video first as it will help you learn more from the materials that come later.
1 видео (всего 5 мин.), 1 материал для самостоятельного изучения
1 видео
1 материал для самостоятельного изучения
Course Logistics (Start Here)10мин
Fallacies of Unclarity
CONTENT: In this week's material we will describes two phenomena that are both common and useful in the languages that human beings speak, but both of which give rise to the potential for fallacious reasoning. A word or phrase is vague when its meaning is not precise, and it is ambiguous when it has more than one meaning. When we use vague or ambiguous phrases in our reasoning, it is very easy for us to make a number of different kinds of fallacies. This week will teach you what these different kinds of fallacies are, and give us some practice in spotting them, so you can make sure to avoid them in the future. LEARNING OUTCOMES : By the end of this week's material you will be able to: define what a fallacy is distinguish various kinds of fallacies understand the linguistic phenomena that give rise to fallacies identify various kinds of slippery slop fallacies where they occur identify various kinds of fallacies of equivocation where they occur OPTIONAL READING: If you want more examples or more detailed discussions of the fallacies that result from vaguness or ambiguity, we recommend Understanding Arguments, Ninth Edition, Chapters 13-14.
9 видео (всего 71 мин.), 7 тестов
9 видео
Argument from the Heap7мин
Vagueness8мин
Conceptual Slippery Slopes6мин
Fairness Slippery Slopes6мин
Causal Slippery Slopes6мин
Ambiguity8мин
Semantic and Syntactic Ambiguity13мин
Fallacies of Equivocation6мин
7 практического упражнения
Introduction to Fallacies2мин
Vagueness10мин
Slippery Slopes6мин
Fairness Slippery Slopes6мин
Causal Slippery Slopes6мин
Semantic and Syntactic Ambiguity8мин
Fallacies of Equivocation20мин
2
Раздел
Fallacies of Relevance
CONTENT: This week describes two of the most common fallacies that people make: ad hominem fallacies and appeals to authority. Part of what makes these fallacies so common, and so difficult to avoid, is that many ad hominem arguments, and many appeals to authority, are actually not fallacies at all! Only some of them are. And figuring out which of them are fallacies is more of an art than a science. There is no simple recipe, but there are some rules of thumb you can use. We hope that the practice that you get in this week will help you to improve your skills at distinguish the fallacious from the non-fallacious instances of ad hominem reasoning, as well as appeal to authority. LEARNING OUTCOMES: By the end of this section you will be able to: determine whether an ad hominem argument is a fallacy determine whether an appeal to authority is a fallacy OPTIONAL READING: If you want more examples or more detailed discussions of these topics, we recommend Understanding Arguments, Ninth Edition, Chapter 15.
10 видео (всего 68 мин.), 5 тестов
10 видео
Fallacies of Relevance: Ad Hominem8мин
Silencers10мин
Dismissers6мин
Deniers6мин
Appeals to Authority6мин
Amplifiers4мин
Supporters4мин
Affirmers5мин
Appeals to Popular Opinion3мин
5 практического упражнения
Dismissers6мин
Deniers6мин
Supporters6мин
Affirmers12мин
Appeals to Popular Opinion10мин
Fallacies of Vacuity and Circularity
CONTENT: Now we will describe another common set of fallacies: fallacies that occur when an argument makes no progress from its premises to its conclusion. Sometimes, arguments make no progress because the conclusion is already contained in the premises. Sometimes, arguments make no progress because the conclusion is presupposed by the premises. And sometimes, arguments make no progress because the premises don’t make any claim at all, even if they might sound like they do. When you know how to identify such fallacies, you will find that they are more common than you think! LEARNING OUTCOMES: By the end of this section you will be able to: identify various kinds of circularity or vacuity where they occur OPTIONAL READING: If you want more examples or more detailed discussions of these topics, we recommend Understanding Arguments,Ninth Edition, Chapter 16.
3 видео (всего 17 мин.), 3 тестов
3 практического упражнения
Fallacies of Vacuity10мин
Circularity and Begging the Question12мин
Self-Sealers6мин
3
Раздел
Refutation: Its Varieties and PItfalls
CONTENT: This week we will teach you various strategies for refuting a fallacious argument. To refute an argument is to show that the argument is unsuccessful. Even if you are able to identify a fallacious argument as a fallacy, you might still not be able to prove to others that it is a fallacy. In this week, you will learn a variety of techniques for proving to others that the argument is a fallacy. LEARNING OUTCOMES: By the end of this week you will be able to: refute fallacious arguments OPTIONAL READING: If you want more examples or more detailed discussions of these topics, we recommend Understanding Arguments, Ninth Edition, Chapter 17.
7 видео (всего 71 мин.), 4 тестов
7 видео
Refutation5мин
Refutation by Parallel Reasoning11мин
False Dichotomy16мин
Reductio Ad Absurdum7мин
Counterexamples10мин
Attacking a Straw Man12мин
Why Walter Should Shave His Head6мин
4 практического упражнения
Refutation by Parallel Reasoning22мин
Counterexamples12мин
Reductio Ad Absurdum14мин
Attacking a Straw Man12мин
4
Раздел
Catch-Up and Final Quiz
This week gives you time to catch up and review, because we realize that the previous weeks include a great deal of challenging material. It will also be provide enough time to take the final quiz as often as you want, with different questions each time. We explain the answers in each exam so that you can learn more and do better when you try the exam again. You may take the quiz as many times as you want in order to learn more and do better, with different questions each time. You will be able to retake the quiz three times every eight hours. You might not need to take more than one version of the exam if you do well enough on your first try. That is up to you. However many versions you take, we hope that all of the exams will provide additional learning experiences.
1 видео (всего 5 мин.), 1 тест
1 видео
The Great Shave5мин
1 практическое упражнение
Final Examмин
4.6
83%
Лучшие рецензии
автор: LB•Sep 25th 2017
This course has been incredible and more than anything because of the energy put by the instructors, I truly thank you for helping the world to become a better place to live.\n\nfrom Colombia, Luis.
автор: CK•May 30th 2017
This course will be immensely helpful in structuring my thoughts in a logical and manner by addressing pertinent material and avoiding fallacy traps. Thank you so much!!!
Преподавателя
Dr. Walter Sinnott-Armstrong
ProfessorPhilosophy
Dr. Ram Neta
ProfessorPhilosophy
О 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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