Fundamentals
▶ Fundamentals: Introduction to Critical Thinking
Geoff Pynn gets you started on the critical thinking journey. He tells you what critical thinking is, what an argument is, and what the difference between a deductive and an ampliative argument is. Speaker: Dr. Geoff Pynn, Assistant Professor, Northern Illinois University
▶ Fundamentals: Deductive Arguments
In this video, Geoff Pynn follows up on his introduction to critical thinking by exploring how deductive arguments give us reason to believe their conclusions. Good deductive arguments guarantee their conclusions, and so must be valid (i.e., it must be impossible for the premises to be true while the conclusion is false) and have true premises. Philosophers call arguments like these "sound". You can see whether an argument is sound by trying to think of a counterexample to it, but to see whether its premises are true, you need to do some research. Speaker: Dr. Geoff Pynn, Assistant Professor, Northern llinois University
▶ Fundamentals: Abductive Arguments
In this video, Geoff Pynn follows up on his introduction to critical thinking by exploring how abductive arguments give us reason to believe their conclusions. Good abductive arguments don't guarantee their conclusions, but give us very good reasons to believe their conclusions. This sort of inference is called "inference to the best explanation." Speaker: Dr. Geoff Pynn, Assistant Professor, Northern Illinois University
▶ Fundamentals: Validity
Paul Henne discusses the philosophical concept of validity. After reviewing the structure of an argument, he defines validity: an argument is valid if and only if its premises guarantee the conclusion. He reviews a few examples of validity and invalidity, and he leaves you with one example to figure out on your own. Speaker: Paul Henne, Duke University
▶ Fundamentals: Truth and Validity
In this video, Julianne Chung explains the philosophical concepts of truth and validity before going on to illustrate how truth and falsity, as well as validity and invalidity, can appear in various combinations in an argument. She then introduces the concept of a sound argument (i.e., a valid argument whose premises are all true) and presents one reason to think that valid arguments with false premises are also of interest. For more detailed discussions of validity and soundness, please be sure to have a look at the videos on these topics by Paul Henne (Duke University) and Aaron Ancell (Duke University), respectively. Speaker: Julianne Chung, Yale University
▶ Fundamentals: Soundness
Aaron Ancell discusses the philosophical concept of soundness. After reviewing validity, he defines soundness: an argument is sound when it is valid and has all true premises. He reviews a few examples of sound and unsound arguments, and he encourages you to develop sound arguments on your own. Speaker: Aaron Ancell, Duke University
▶ Fundamentals: Bayes' Theorem
In this Wireless Philosophy video, Ian Olasov (CUNY) introduces Bayes' Theorem of conditional probability, and the related Base Rate Fallacy. Speaker: Ian Olasov, City University of New York
▶ Fundamentals: Correlation and Causation
In this Wireless Philosophy video, Paul Henne (Duke University) explains the difference between correlation and causation.
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