Critical Reasoning and Logic (cancelled)

Keywords: Basic concepts of logic, deductive and inductive reasoning, argument-patterns, fallacies, argument reconstruction and assessment

Introduction to the course topics:

In science, thinking clearly and seeing the logical relationships between ideas is as important as are experiments and data. Nevertheless, the logical basics of correct reasoning are not part of the curricula for most university degrees. In this course we introduce basic concepts of logic such as validity and soundness and the distinction between inductive and deductive reasoning. The idea of the course is to use these concepts as a toolbox for various aspects of scientific work. Participants get to know techniques that help them identify strengths and weaknesses in arguments, structure texts optimally, and to state arguments clearly and precisely.

Course aims:

• Participants break down arguments into their logical structure
• Participants quickly identify strengths and weaknesses in arguments
• Participants train analytical thinking
• Participants structure texts and presentations optimally

Teaching methods: The methods are interactive throughout. The course includes extensive exercises that help the participants to apply the contents to their individual research projects.

This course fits doctoral candidates in the following phase: beginning of the doctorate │ during the doctorate │ end of the doctorate

Participation requirements: none

Literature: none

Technical requirements: For the online course we use Zoom. In addition, we set up a course page on Moodle where materials and exercises are made available to the participants.

Additonal information, notes: This course is not about communication. If you are interested in rhetoric or presentation skills, you should attend one of our other courses you can find in "Communication and Methodological Competence".