PHIL145: Critical Thinking

UWaterloo critical-thinking course. Covers what good reasoning looks like, the standards arguments are held to, and the most common ways reasoning goes wrong (fallacies, biases, bad analogies, mishandled correlation/causation).

The bulk of the course distinguishes deductive reasoning (truth-preserving) from ampliative reasoning (everything else: induction, analogy, IBE, causal inference). Most real-world reasoning is ampliative, judged by cogency rather than soundness.

Concepts

Module 1: Critical Thinking and the Critical Thinker

• Critical Thinking
• Skepticism
• Whataboutism
• Bullshit
• Semantics

Module 2: Community of Learners

• Epistemic Community
• Assertion
• Norms of Assertion
• Truth-Apt
• Testimony

Module 3: Arguing in Good Faith

• Argument
• Principle of Charity
• Bad-Faith Argument
• Astroturfing
• Sea-Lioning
• Gish Galloping

Module 4: Standardizing Arguments

• Standard Form
• Premise
• Conclusion
• Enthymeme

Module 5: Diagramming Arguments

• Argument Diagram
• Mary’s Room

Module 6: Deductive Reasoning

• Validity
• Soundness
• Syllogism (categorical: A, E, I, O)
• Sentential Logic
• Bivalence

Module 7: Deductive and Non-Deductive Reasoning

• Five valid sentential forms:
  • Modus Ponens
  • Modus Tollens
  • Disjunctive Syllogism
  • Hypothetical Syllogism
  • Constructive Dilemma
• Affirming the Consequent (invalid: Homer’s bear patrol)
• Ampliative Argument
• Cogency
• Credence

Module 8: Fallacies of Reasoning

• Fallacy (overview)
• Goalpost Test
• Plausibility Test
• Language: Loaded Question, Equivocation
• Causal: False Cause
• Unwarranted assumption: Middle Ground, Division, Genetic Fallacy
• Missing evidence: Burden of Proof, Texas Sharpshooter, Personal Incredulity, Black-or-White, Anecdotal Evidence
• Circular: Begging the Question
• Irrelevance: Strawman, Appeal to Authority, Appeal to Nature, Tu Quoque, Ad Hominem
• Fallacy Fallacy

Module 9: Biases

• Cognitive Bias (overview)
• Decision-making: Anchoring, Sunk Cost, Reactance
• Knowledge: Confirmation Bias, Availability, Backfire Effect, Curse of Knowledge
• State of the world: Just-World Hypothesis, Declinism
• Perception: Halo Effect, Spotlight Effect
• Situational: Framing Effect, Bystander Effect
• Attribution: Fundamental Attribution Error, Forer Effect
• Bias Blind Spot / Dunning–Kruger

Module 10: Ampliative Arguments (Correlations)

• Correlation
• Sample vs. Population
• Confidence Interval
• Margin of Error
• Statistical Significance
• Biased Sampling

Module 11: Ampliative Arguments (Causation)

• Causation
• Hume on Causation
• Mill’s Methods (Agreement, Difference, Joint, Residue, Concomitant Variation)
• Causal Argument (Principles of Agreement and Difference)
• Study designs:
  • Randomized Experimental Design
  • Double-Blind Study
  • Prospective Study
  • Retrospective Study
  • Control Group
• Placebo Effect
• Simpson’s Paradox
• Correlation vs Causation Fallacy

Module 12: More Ampliative Arguments and Concluding Thoughts

• Argument by Analogy
• Inductive Analogy
• Consistency Analogy
• False Analogy
• Inference to the Best Explanation (IBE / abduction)

Misc

The course’s recurring punchline: argue to learn, not to win. Most fallacies and biases get easier to avoid once you’re not optimizing for being right.

UW academic-freedom backdrop: Policy 33 (ethical behaviour) and Policy 71 (student discipline).