Want to solve a murder mystery? What caused your computer to fail? Who can you trust in your everyday life? In this course, you will learn how to analyze and assess five common forms of inductive arguments: generalizations from samples, applications of generalizations, inference to the best explanation, arguments from analogy, and causal reasoning. The course closes by showing how you can use probability to help make decisions of all sorts. 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 8-12, 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.
if at the end of the course we add a little recap of all the concepts we have covered. it will be much of a help
This entire series was informative, engaging, and fun, and the thinking skills taught are so valuable.
Am sure I will take the other parts of this course, very interesting.
Fun and interesting! I'm debating a career change to either Computer Science or Law, so this is a great mental warm up for studying either.
I find this course more interesting and i really enjoyed leanrning the skill
Interesting course on reasoning which includes a little of mathematics (statistics) but also a whole lot of basic reasoning (common sense).
Very effective teaching . It creates the power to judge arguments more accurately .
One of the best courses I have ever done in my life.
Course with fun and a deep insight into one of the most commonly used arguments
I enjoyed this course and particularly enjoyed the instructor. He has a sense of humor that I enjoyed, and he presents the material in ways that are easy to understand.
The best professors and I learned a lot. I have finished three of them and I am learning the fourth. I really like the break down of the classes.
Great course to help understand principles of inductive reasoning; recommended!
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The best professors and I learned a lot. I have finished three of them and I am learning the fourth. I really like the break down of the classes.
I really enjoyed this class! Walter is a great professor and I enjoy his lectures and explanations that he offers.
Fantastic course! Course content very well defined and explanations very well placed. Congratulations for Walter, an awesome instructor! I learned a lot from the course, it really opened my mind to many life issues. I really learned probability in a playful way.
The course did a good job laying out the uses of inductive arguments in an organized manner. Also, I appreciate how the course organized the basic probability theory,
Perfect course and presentation of material.Very good incorporation of mentors for discusion.Good job!
Awesome course with concentration on probability theory, thanks professor Walter
The material in this course is well presented, though scarce at times. However it has its share of problems :
-little to no interaction from TA's or mentors in the forums
-the quizzes are often out of sync with the lectures
-the final exam has severe problems with questions (form not content).
In more detail, on the final exam, some of the questions don't even contain all the content to answer them. They can request multiple answers but have single question boxes and/or the reverse.
Este curso me permitió comprender que tomar buenas decisiones no depende únicamente de la intuición, sino de analizar la información y las probabilidades de manera razonada. A lo largo de los temas aprendí conceptos como el valor esperado, la probabilidad condicional y el teorema de Bayes, además de distinguir entre el valor financiero esperado y el valor global esperado, lo que me hizo reflexionar sobre la importancia de considerar tanto los aspectos económicos como los personales al decidir. Considero que el contenido fue claro y progresivo, ya que cada tema se apoyó en ejemplos cotidianos que facilitaron la comprensión de conceptos que al principio parecían complejos. Aunque algunos ejercicios de probabilidad requirieron mayor atención, el curso me ayudó a desarrollar una forma de pensar más analítica y crítica, habilidades que serán de gran utilidad tanto en mi formación jurídica como en la toma de decisiones de la vida diaria.
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What I learned from this course is that philosophy can be applied to our daily life and professional work.
Through humorous presentations, Professor Armstrong introduced different types of inductive arguments such as causation and decision making. Although they are not a panacea for every problems I encounter, the materials on this course certainly help me to think clearly and hopeful to make better decisions. I would recommend this course for anyone who want to improve their thinking.
Looking forward to taking Think Again IV.
Este curso me ayudó a entender de una forma mucho más clara cómo funciona la probabilidad en la vida real, al principio lo sentí un poco complicado pero poco a poco con los ejemplos pude comprender mejor, me hizo reflexionar sobre cómo tomamos decisiones y cómo muchas veces confundimos correlación con causa, lo que más me gustó fue que no solo se enfoca en números, sino también en el razonamiento lógico y el pensamiento crítico.
Concluir este curso representó un gran desafío intelectual debido a la profundidad y complejidad de sus temas. Esta experiencia consolidó mi capacidad de análisis y resolución de problemas de forma autónoma. Me llevo herramientas clave y la capacidad práctica para aplicarlas en situaciones reales, lo que sin duda potenciará mi desempeño y me permitirá abordar futuros retos profesionales.
Beautiful. Higly recommended. Inductive logic is more intuitive than deductive logic. Easier to understand compared it to deductive thinking. But as your move through inductive theroy, I belive, deductive thinking starts to make sense.
I you have the chance do not miss this specialization. Would streghten your critical thinking as offered.
Curso muy bien estructurado, con explicaciones claras y ejercicios que realmente ponen a prueba la comprensión, no solo la memorización. Me gustó especialmente cómo se usan cuantificadores y conectivas inventadas para obligar a razonar desde la lógica pura, sin dejarse llevar por el significado intuitivo de las palabras. Lo recomiendo.
Very challenging but very informative in an informal, conversational format. I rented the coursebook and would have found so much more helpful if there were answer keys to the questions. I couldn't tell if I was doing the exercise correctly or not.
It was fantastic. A little bit more dense than the previous courses of this series, but surprisingly easy at the end! I thought probability was my weakness but it is the least of my worries now that I took this course. I feel so good!
Very good and funny course. It's noticeable the effort put when doing this course, I congratulate the professor and his staff because their work helped us to learn and understand how to reason inductively properly.
Thank you very much!
There is a lot of information that I interact with daily but this course has given me an edge in processing it. With a great interest in scientific research, am glad to know what will and how it will make sense. Thank you.
The whole series of FOUR COURSES is absolutely BRILLIANT. i'M SO FASCINATED BY ALL OF THEM. I genuinely think that after completing Course 4 I will re take them when new sessions occur. Congrats Walter and Ram!
This course has assisted in articulating concepts that have come up in my career and really reinforced them effectively. I thoroughly enjoyed being challenged in my thinking at times. Thank you Prof. Walter.