Site • RSS • Apple PodcastsDescription (podcaster-provided):
Are you confident you can reason clearly? Are you able to convince others of your point of view? Are you able to give plausible reasons for believing what you believe? Do you sometimes read arguments in the newspapers, hear them on the television, or in the pub and wish you knew how to confidently evaluate them?Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):
➤ identifying arguments • deductive vs inductive reasoning • setting arguments out logic-book style • evaluating validity, truth, and argument strength • recognizing common fallacies and bad argumentsThis podcast is a short, structured introduction to critical reasoning aimed at helping listeners recognize, analyze, and evaluate arguments encountered in everyday life, including in media and conversation. It explains what an argument is and how to distinguish arguments from other kinds of statements, then builds a framework for examining how arguments are put together.
Across the episodes, the course develops the practical skill of setting out arguments clearly—often in a formal, “logic book” style—so that premises and conclusions can be identified and assessed. It introduces major categories of reasoning, with particular attention to the difference between deductive and inductive arguments, and why that distinction matters for evaluation.
The podcast also focuses on standards used to judge whether an argument succeeds. For deductive reasoning, it emphasizes the concept of validity and how validity relates to truth. For inductive reasoning, it addresses what makes an argument stronger or weaker and how to determine whether the support offered is adequate. It concludes by examining fallacies: common patterns of bad reasoning that can appear persuasive, with the goal of helping listeners avoid mistaking flawed arguments for good ones.
Overall, the content is presented as a step-by-step course in analyzing reasoning, with an emphasis on clarity, plausibility of support, and identifying common errors in argumentation.
| Episodes: |
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Evaluating Arguments Part Two 2010-Mar-18 57 minutes |
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Evaluating Arguments Part One 2010-Mar-15 66 minutes |
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What is a Good Argument? Validity and Truth 2010-Mar-11 52 minutes |
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Setting out Arguments Logic Book Style 2010-Mar-10 80 minutes |
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Different Types of Arguments 2010-Jan-29 70 minutes |
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The Nature of Arguments 2010-Jan-29 79 minutes |