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Are there any good critical thinking courses online?

I’m interested in helping friends tell the difference between fact and fiction, truth and hearsay and general stuff like that that gives peace of mind that they can defend themselves from gaslighting, makes life easier to live, and harder to be taken advantage of by propaganda. Just a few examples.

Bonus points if it’s free. I see one on coursera that runs for four hours per week for several months which works out at roughly over €100 www.coursera.org/…/logic-critical-thinking-duke

FireTower ,
@FireTower@lemmy.world avatar

LSAT test prep logic games? There’s a few free batches of questions out there.

CuriousRefugee ,

They do have courses, but there’s also a lot of good quizzes to evaluate your critical thinking skills at ClearerThinking.org

Addv4 ,

Not really a course, but Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality is a pretty good fanfic made with the intent of teaching critical logic concepts and logical fallacies to the reader. I found it a good read, and even if you might dislike some of the literary choices made (Harry makes fast friends with Malfoy, etc), it does cover most of the stuff in a critical thinking textbook in a somewhat approachable manner. It’s free, and you can read chapter by chapter if you just want to give it a glance.

FarraigePlaisteach OP ,
@FarraigePlaisteach@lemmy.world avatar

Very interesting and great to get a recommendation someone has tried themselves. Thank you.

Addv4 ,

I’ve heard from some of the people I recommend it to that they didn’t like it, so it’s very much a ymmv thing. I remember it because it actually made me question my religion with some of the points discussed, which got the ball rolling towards becoming an atheist.

FarraigePlaisteach OP ,
@FarraigePlaisteach@lemmy.world avatar

I’m not familiar with the franchise so it wouldn’t suit me but I can think of many people I could refer it to. Also since it’s not written by the bigoted woman herself I’d have less resistance to sharing it.

Addv4 ,

It’s mostly written for to attract nerds who liked Harry Potter. Hp fanfic can be all over the place, but HPMOR was one of the better ones. Hope it helps!

solrize ,

Didn’t know such courses exist, and they sound like a great channel to slip in propaganda :). But we search finds free ones if you scroll past Coursera.

duckduckgo.com/?q=critical+thinking+course

FarraigePlaisteach OP ,
@FarraigePlaisteach@lemmy.world avatar

I’m able to find things online. I’m looking for recommendations.

solrize ,

It seems difficult. The kind of person willing to study such a topic probably already has some skills. Most folks are non-criticial because they like to be that way, so you’re really asking for them to change their personalities.

That said, I liked the fanfiction novel Harry Potter and The Methods of Rationality (hpmor.com) despite its serious flaws. But, it is generally the target of intense hate in the regular HP fanfic community. It has its own fandom that is mostly separate.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fallacies is a pretty quick read, with links to follow–maybe start there?

I’ve been wanting to work through “Statistics” by Freedman, Pisani, and Purves, which talks a lot about confounders and other mistakes people can make. But, while not super technical, it’s a college level textbook.

BlucifersVeinyAnus ,

Best place to start looking I can think of is James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF)

If they don’t have a course themselves they may have links or ideas, this is right up their alley

FarraigePlaisteach OP ,
@FarraigePlaisteach@lemmy.world avatar

Thanks. I’m having a hard time finding something compatible to the Coursera course there. They seem to be focussed on debunking psychics etc. Interesting site, though.

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