Think Again IV: How to Avoid Fallacies

Duke University via Coursera

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Coursera
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Paid Course
Languages

English
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Effort

6 weeks, 3 hours a week
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Not Currently Offered
Level

Beginner
Subtitles

German, Hindi, Pashto, Russian, French, Bengali, Chinese, Hungarian, Ukrainian, Indonesian, Urdu, Kazakh, Swedish, Korean, Portuguese, Greek, English, Italian, Spanish, Arabic, Vietnamese, Thai, Japanese, Azerbaijani, Polish, Farsi, Dutch, Turkish

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We encounter fallacies almost everywhere we look. Politicians, salespeople, and children commonly use fallacies in order to get you to think whatever they want you to think. It’s important to learn to recognize fallacies so that you can avoid being fooled by them. It’s also important to learn about fallacies so that you avoid making fallacious arguments yourself. This course will show you how to identify and avoid many of the fallacies that lead people astray. 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.

Syllabus

Welcome to the Course
- Welcome to Think Again: How to Avoid Fallacies! This course is the fourth in the specialization Introduction to Logic and Critical Thinking, based on our original Coursera course 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 Specialization" video first as it will help you learn more from the materials that come later.
Fallacies of Unclarity
- In this module'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 module 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. If you want more examples or more detailed discussions of the fallacies that result from vagueness or ambiguity, we recommend Understanding Arguments, Ninth Edition, Chapters 13-14.
Fallacies of Relevance
- This module 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 module 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. If you want more examples or more detailed discussions of these topics, we recommend Understanding Arguments, Ninth Edition, Chapter 15.
Fallacies of Vacuity and Circularity
- 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! If you want more examples or more detailed discussions of these topics, we recommend Understanding Arguments, Ninth Edition, Chapter 16.
Refutation: Its Varieties and PItfalls
- This module 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 module, you will learn a variety of techniques for proving to others that the argument is a fallacy. If you want more examples or more detailed discussions of these topics, we recommend Understanding Arguments, Ninth Edition, Chapter 17.
Catch-Up and Final Quiz
- This module gives you time to catch up and review, because we realize that the previous modules 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.

Taught by

Walter Sinnott-Armstrong and Ram Neta

Reviews

4.2 rating, based on 32 Class Central reviews

4.7 rating at Coursera based on 465 ratings

Start your review of Think Again IV: How to Avoid Fallacies

Adelyne Chan @adelyne
293

This course started of stormingly well, with Prof Sinnott-Armstrong providing a whole load of wackiness in the way he delivers the course. Unfortunately the content started to go rather downhill after that, and I found Prof Neta's style of teaching particularly difficult to follow.
Bart

The lectures take quite a lot of time compared to the quizzes. The difficulty level is not very consistent. Some of the lectures and quizzes are really boring and repetitive, but that could just be me. I find the topic itself is very interesting. And even though I'm not always enjoying every bit, I do notice when I mechanically work through the course material, the material sticks which helps me to apply it outside the course which is the reason I took the course in the first place.
Anonymous

Well, it was a course in logic. But logic doesn't have to be this dull.

Some parts were well done, some so unclear or confusing that students were swapping web sites that explained much better what the profs were trying to teach.

It was also poorly sub-titled, many thought it was going to be course in rhetoric, which may have contributed to the high dropout rate.
Ilyn Murphy
1

This was a fantastic course, getting my mind actually thinking for the first time in ages (I didn't know it wasn't until I took the course). Even if you don't use the logic or "formulas" a lot in the future, it's great training for life in general. We're talking about decisions/stuff we do every day. An important course.
Cynthia Abner
9

I recommend that if you take this course, you take no other course at the same time. Heavy in video lectures.

I didn't pass this course. With all the time I put into it. It was tough and time consuming. I will redo this course when I have no distractions.
Gabriella Rubalcava
3
Anonymous

Engaging, interesting, amazing, fun, and sometimes changelling. I had a great time and now I am a better thinker. A must.
Anonymous

Excellent entertaining class that doesn't demand much of your time.
Apostolos K.
48

I suppose I "partially completed" this course, but since I elected to remove it from my coursera enrollments, I am really a conscientious "dropper". The videos were interesting, and the little level of wackiness made them more interesting, but the assessments felt incongruous with the methodology of teaching, and they were missed opportunities for further learning.
RoosWilhelm
72

I found the course interesting but quite slow-paced. The lecturers often repeat themselves and they give lots of examples. So on the bright side, it did occassionally feel like being in school again (looking out of the window, waiting for something to Happen while the teacher goes on and on :-) But other than that it's a pretty good course. Lots of exercises to help you stay involved, well-structured, not-confusing. Also, it is obvious that the lecturers had a great time in creating this course, which is sweet, and the positive vibes are definitely contagious.
Anonymous

I enjoyed this class mainly because of the way Walter and Ram had fun with their real world examples. I might have had an easier time than some because I'd seen the material before through self-study. The course title I think confused many people into thinking this course was about public presentation or something. It is not! It is a standard "Introduction To Logic" course with fun professors.
Nathan
57

Sorry this course is more annoying than useful. The explanations are often confusing, the videos go off on tangents, use way too complicated examples, and I found the videos about language completely irrelevant to the topic. In the mid-video questions the material is often asked before it has been explained, making the course quite a frustrating experience.
(Dropped it at the 7th video of the 1st week.)
Jiting Tian
11

A nice course overall. This is an introduction-level course on logistic. The contents are very easy and the teachers give many vivid examples to make the concepts more accessible. It's useful for people who have not been involved in learning for a long time, but not suitable for undergraduates and graduates who are active in learning and researching.
João Arthur Grahl

Very good course. Not easy though but worth it. It manages to mix logic, rhetoric, statistics in a very interesting wayl
Lesley Smith
4
Anonymous

Outstanding course! Many thanks to professors, who made it fun and engaging!
Anonymous
Linda Suzuki
Maliki Birosse Wardjomto
1
Fabian Duran