This course teaches foundational skills essential to being an effective individual as a parent, citizen, in one’s career etc.. In today’s world where discourse is significantly degraded and polarisation extreme, critical thinking helps us to develop a reasoned position on complex issues and to be able to promote our ideas effectively to a hostile audience. This course is suitable for beginners but also will deepen the practise of professionals and educators. Focus will be on classic thinkers but also influential personalities in the new media whose speeches and debates will be analysed; e.g. Sam Harris, Slavoj Zizek, Jordan Peterson and more.

DELIVERY MODE

• Face-to-Face

SUGGESTED READING

• Louise Katz: Critical Thinking and Persuasive Writing for Post-Graduates, Bloomsbury Academic, 2018,  ISBN 9781137604422
• Daniel Dennet: Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking, Penguin Books, 2014, ISBN 0241954622
• John Brockman (editor)This Idea Must Die, HarperCollins, 2015 ISBN  0062374346
• John Higgs: Stranger Than we Can Imagine, Weidenf,eld and Nicholson, 2016, ISBN  978-0297870906

COURSE OUTLINE

• Why Critical Thinking Matters in the 21st Century
• Language, Clarity, and Framing
• Cognitive Biases and Assumptions
• Logic and Argumentation
• Thinking Beyond the Binary
• Perspectives and Lenses
• Paradigms, Dialectics, and the Zeitgeist
• Debate and Dialogue Skills
• Creative Thinking Techniques for Critical Minds
• Moral Reasoning and Real-World Application

LEARNED OUTCOMES

By the end of this course, students should be able to:

1. Define and apply key concepts of critical and creative thinking.
2. Identify and analyse assumptions, biases, and logical fallacies in discourse.
3. Construct clear, well-supported arguments and counterarguments.
4. Apply diverse intellectual lenses to interpret issues.
5. Engage constructively with differing perspectives.
6. Use creative thinking strategies to develop innovative solutions to complex problems.