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When Claims Conflict
You will be able to
- understand that when a claim conflicts with other claims we have good reason to accept, we have good grounds for doubting it.
- recognize that if a claim conflicts with our background information, we have good reason to doubt it.
- appreciate that when we are confronted with a claim that is neither completely dubious nor fully credible, we should proportion our belief to the evidence.
- realize that it is not reasonable to believe a claim when there is no good reason for doing so.
Experts and Evidence
You will be able to
- understand what makes someone an expert and what does not.
- understand that if a claim conflicts with expert opinion, we have good reason to doubt it.
- realize that when the experts disagree about a claim, we have good reason to suspend judgment.
- recognize fallacious appeals to authority.
- distinguish true experts from non-experts by using the four indicators of expertise.
Personal Experience
You will be able to
- understand that it is reasonable to accept the evidence provided by personal experience only if there is no good reason to doubt it.
- appreciate the importance of the common factors that can give us good reason to doubt the reliability of personal experience—impairment, expectation, and innumeracy.
Fooling Ourselves
You will be able to
- appreciate why we need to resist the human tendency to resist contrary evidence.
- become sensitive to the possibility of confirmation bias.
- be alert to the possibility of the availability error.
Claims in the News
You will be able to
- gain a basic understanding of how the news media work and what factors influence the claims they generate.
- understand the skills involved in evaluating claims in the news.
Advertising and Persuasion
You will be able to
- understand and apply the guiding principle for thinking critically about advertising.
- exhibit familiarity with common tactics of persuasion used in advertising.