55

I’m interested in helping friends tell the difference between fact and fiction, truth and hearsay and general stuff like that that gives peace of mind that they can defend themselves from gaslighting, makes life easier to live, and harder to be taken advantage of by propaganda. Just a few examples.

Bonus points if it’s free. I see one on coursera that runs for four hours per week for several months which works out at roughly over €100 https://www.coursera.org/specializations/logic-critical-thinking-duke

top 13 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old

Best place to start looking I can think of is James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF)

If they don’t have a course themselves they may have links or ideas, this is right up their alley

[-] FarraigePlaisteach@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

Thanks. I’m having a hard time finding something compatible to the Coursera course there. They seem to be focussed on debunking psychics etc. Interesting site, though.

[-] CuriousRefugee@lemmy.ml 7 points 3 weeks ago

They do have courses, but there's also a lot of good quizzes to evaluate your critical thinking skills at ClearerThinking.org

[-] Addv4@lemmy.world 5 points 3 weeks ago

Not really a course, but Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality is a pretty good fanfic made with the intent of teaching critical logic concepts and logical fallacies to the reader. I found it a good read, and even if you might dislike some of the literary choices made (Harry makes fast friends with Malfoy, etc), it does cover most of the stuff in a critical thinking textbook in a somewhat approachable manner. It's free, and you can read chapter by chapter if you just want to give it a glance.

[-] FarraigePlaisteach@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago

Very interesting and great to get a recommendation someone has tried themselves. Thank you.

[-] Addv4@lemmy.world 5 points 3 weeks ago

I've heard from some of the people I recommend it to that they didn't like it, so it's very much a ymmv thing. I remember it because it actually made me question my religion with some of the points discussed, which got the ball rolling towards becoming an atheist.

[-] FarraigePlaisteach@lemmy.world 4 points 3 weeks ago

I’m not familiar with the franchise so it wouldn’t suit me but I can think of many people I could refer it to. Also since it’s not written by the bigoted woman herself I’d have less resistance to sharing it.

[-] Addv4@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

It's mostly written for to attract nerds who liked Harry Potter. Hp fanfic can be all over the place, but HPMOR was one of the better ones. Hope it helps!

[-] clockwork_octopus@lemmy.world 4 points 3 weeks ago

The University of Alberta has a free course on science literacy. I think it’s available on coursera.

[-] FireTower@lemmy.world 0 points 3 weeks ago

LSAT test prep logic games? There's a few free batches of questions out there.

[-] solrize@lemmy.world -5 points 3 weeks ago

Didn't know such courses exist, and they sound like a great channel to slip in propaganda :). But we search finds free ones if you scroll past Coursera.

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=critical+thinking+course

[-] FarraigePlaisteach@lemmy.world 9 points 3 weeks ago

I’m able to find things online. I’m looking for recommendations.

[-] solrize@lemmy.world -4 points 3 weeks ago

It seems difficult. The kind of person willing to study such a topic probably already has some skills. Most folks are non-criticial because they like to be that way, so you're really asking for them to change their personalities.

That said, I liked the fanfiction novel Harry Potter and The Methods of Rationality (hpmor.com) despite its serious flaws. But, it is generally the target of intense hate in the regular HP fanfic community. It has its own fandom that is mostly separate.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fallacies is a pretty quick read, with links to follow--maybe start there?

I've been wanting to work through "Statistics" by Freedman, Pisani, and Purves, which talks a lot about confounders and other mistakes people can make. But, while not super technical, it's a college level textbook.

this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2024
55 points (98.2% liked)

No Stupid Questions

35306 readers
752 users here now

No such thing. Ask away!

!nostupidquestions is a community dedicated to being helpful and answering each others' questions on various topics.

The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:

Rules (interactive)


Rule 1- All posts must be legitimate questions. All post titles must include a question.

All posts must be legitimate questions, and all post titles must include a question. Questions that are joke or trolling questions, memes, song lyrics as title, etc. are not allowed here. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.



Rule 2- Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.

Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.



Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.

Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.



Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.

That's it.



Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.

Questions which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.



Rule 6- Regarding META posts and joke questions.

Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-question posts using the [META] tag on your post title.

On fridays, you are allowed to post meme and troll questions, on the condition that it's in text format only, and conforms with our other rules. These posts MUST include the [NSQ Friday] tag in their title.

If you post a serious question on friday and are looking only for legitimate answers, then please include the [Serious] tag on your post. Irrelevant replies will then be removed by moderators.



Rule 7- You can't intentionally annoy, mock, or harass other members.

If you intentionally annoy, mock, harass, or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.

Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.



Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.



Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.

Let everyone have their own content.



Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.



Credits

Our breathtaking icon was bestowed upon us by @Cevilia!

The greatest banner of all time: by @TheOneWithTheHair!

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS