Critical Thinking class, Part 1, Class 1

A course of DVDs and discussions. Lectures delivered by Steven Novella in a series called "Your Deceptive Mind" Part 1 covers lectures 1-14 and Part 2 (a separate course) covers 15-24.

Tentative schedule below (subject to change)

Your Deceptive Mind with Steven Novella

Fall 2013

Part 1 (7 classes)

Sep 12 Class 1: The Necessity of Thinking about Thinking and The Neuroscience of Belief

Sep 19 Class 2: Errors of Perception and Flaws and Fabrications of Memory

Sep 26 Class 3: Pattern Recognition – Seeing What’s Not There and Our Constructed Reality

Oct 3 Class 4: The Structure and Purpose of Argument and Logic and Logical Fallacies

Oct 10 Class 5: Heuristics and Cognitive Biases and Poor at Probability – Our Innate Innumeracy

Oct 17 Class 6: Toward Better Estimates of What’s Probable and Culture and Mass Delusions

Oct 24 Class 7: Philosophy and Presuppositions of Science and Science and the Supernatural

Part 2 (5 classes)

Nov 7 Class 1: Varieties and Quality of Scientific Evidence and Great Scientific Blunders

Nov 14 Class 2: Science vs. Pseudoscience and The Many Kinds of Pseudoscience

Nov 21 Class 3: The Trap of Grand Conspiracy Thinking and Denialism – Rejecting Science and History

Dec 5 Class 4: Marketing, Scams, and Urban Legends and Science, Media, and Democracy

Dec 12 Class 5: Experts and Scientific Consensus and Critical Thinking and Science in Your Life

Cost is $20 for either part and $30 for both. $5 for a single class.