Critical Thinking: Data and Fallacies
- Effort: 20 hours
- Pace: Self paced
- Enrollment
- From Sept. 20, 2021 to Nov. 21, 2022
- Course
- From Nov. 22, 2021 to Nov. 21, 2022
- Languages
- French
What you will learn
At the end of this course, you will be able to:
- Know the structure of an argument, identify hidden premises
- Identify fallacious arguments and be able to refute them
- Become aware of your cognitive biases, and understand how they can lead to fallacious arguments
- Identify common mistakes that people make when using data or statistics in their arguments
Description
Social media, political discourses, arguments with your stepmother: everyday, you need argumentation skills to detect when someone is trying to manipulate or mislead you. After all, there is a reason why the topic has been taught since Antiquity.
And now that we have data, and graphs everywhere, of course, people can be misled with graphs, statistics, or models. In this online class, we will teach you how to evaluate simple arguments, that you will hear in everyday conversations, with a focus on those that are supported by data analyses and visualization.
As in any normal course of this type, there will be plenty of videos to watch. Many of them were found on Youtube, because there is already so much content online. Quizzes, to make sure you are able to correctly identify fallacies, and possibly heated debates that you will have to fight against random strangers and keyboard warriors. So, get ready to leap into a course, that, hopefully, will change the way you argue with people, and you read news on the Web or elsewhere.
Format
This class is self-paced; we talk about many different topics, you can either follow all videos, or focus on one specific topic. However, if you want to get the certificate of completion, you will need to pass most quizzes.
Prerequisites
There is no prerequisite for this class. Come with your brain.
Assessment and certification
Assessment mostly relies on quizzes. Successful completion of the quizzes lead to a statement of accomplishment. Side activities involving debates and essays will also be organized, but they are not taken into account in thi statement.
Course plan
- Module 1 : An introduction to arguments
- Module 2 : Informal fallacies : Induction - relevance fallacies
- Module 3 : Informal fallacies : a focus on causation
- Module 4 : Formal fallacies
- Module 5 : Refutation
- Module 6 : Cognitive biases
- Module 7 : Misleading Data Science
Other course runs
- Enrollment
- From Sept. 20, 2021 to Nov. 21, 2022
- Course
- From Nov. 22, 2021 to Nov. 21, 2022
- Languages
- English
Course team
Matthieu Cisel
Mélusine Blondel
Organizations
License
License for the course content
Attribution-NoDerivatives
You are free to:
- Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format for any purpose, even commercially.
Under the following terms:
- Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
- NoDerivatives — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material.
License for the content created by course participants
All rights reserved
"All rights reserved" is a copyright formality indicating that the copyright holder reserves, or holds for its own use, all the rights provided by copyright law.