The University of Auckland is New Zealand’s leading university and the only one included in the Times Higher Education top 200. Founded in 1883, it is also the highest ranked New Zealand university in the QS World University Rankings and Shanghai Jiao Tong Academic Ranking of World Universities. Some 35 percent of the top-ranked academic researchers in New Zealand are at the University of Auckland.

Course: Logical and Critical Thinking

Improve your logical and critical thinking skills in this free online course. Identify common obstacles to effective thinking.

Self-Paced

Duration 8 weeks - 4 hours per week - FREE online course

Why join the course?

We are constantly being given reasons to do and believe things: to believe that we should buy a product, support a cause, accept a job, judge someone innocent or guilty, that fairness requires us to do some household chore, and so on. Assessing the reasons we are given to do or believe these things calls upon us to think critically and logically.

Even though we’re called upon to use our critical and logical thinking skills all the time, most of us are not that good at it. This course aims to help you develop and improve these skills.

What topics will you cover?

You’ll learn how to:

• identify and avoid common thinking mistakes that lead to the formation of bad beliefs;

• recognise, reconstruct and evaluate arguments;

• use basic logical tools to analyse arguments;

• and apply those tools in areas including science, moral theories and law.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you'll be able to...

• Explore key concepts in logical and critical thinking;

• Apply key concepts in logical and critical thinking;

• Identify obstacles to logical and critical thinking;

• Identify the components of a good argument;

• Produce an argument in standard form;

• Classify deductive and non-deductive arguments;

• Evaluate arguments based on criteria such as validity, strength and cogency;

• Interpret scientific, moral and legal arguments;

• Develop an argument "in the wild";

• Assess arguments charitably.

Who is the course for?

This course is open to anyone with an interest in improving their logical and critical thinking skills. No previous knowledge or experience is required.

Please go to the course link on FutureLearn for further detailed information and enrollment: Logical and Critical Thinking.