Critical Reasoning and Logic (online)

Scientists have to give arguments in many different contexts: in their publications, in grant applications, in lab meetings and in conference presentations. Nevertheless, the bases for strong and correct arguments are not always fully clear to them. Logic provides extremely helpful tools for scientists to develop their arguments in a coherent, well-structured and convincing way.

The seminar gives an introduction to the most important concepts of logic: premises and conclusions of arguments, validity and soundness of arguments, deductive vs. inductive reasoning, common types of inferences and fallacies. The idea of the seminar is to use these concepts as a toolbox which provides very useful techniques for everyday scientific work.The participants learn how to reconstruct arguments from scientific texts, how to give well-structured and logically valid arguments, and how to avoid misunder­standings. There are two main sets of exercises: one for written argumentation and one for oral argumentation.

Contents:

Basic concepts of logic (validity and soundness or arguments etc.)

Inductive and deductive arguments

Common types of fallacies

Reconstructing arguments from texts

Tips and exercises for written argumentation

Tips and exercises for oral argumentation

Objectives:

The participants:

• state their arguments in a precise and logically coherent way
• learn to quickly identify the strengths and weaknesses of arguments
• learn how to break down arguments into their logical structure
• train analytical thinking

This course will be conducted online.
Technical requirements: Access to internet, laptop, camera, microphone, zoom (potentially).
Your email address will be forwarded to the trainer for organizational reasons.