Critical Thinker Academy: Learn to Think Like a Philosopher

Enhance your thinking skills to improve grades, advance in your career, and foster independence through critical reasoning in this comprehensive course.

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  • Curriculum
  • Instructor
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Brief Summary

This course helps you develop critical thinking skills that are super important for success in school, jobs, and life. With over 200 videos, you’ll learn how to analyze arguments, understand logic, and write great essays—all while exploring why thinking for yourself matters.

Key Points

  • Importance of learning HOW to think over WHAT to think
  • Critical thinking enhances success in school, work, and life
  • Understanding logic, argumentation, and reasoning leads to better decision-making
  • 200+ videos with practical insights on becoming an independent thinker
  • Continual updates and expansions to course content

Learning Outcomes

  • Gain a solid grasp of critical thinking concepts like logic and argument analysis
  • Learn to identify good versus bad arguments
  • Understand how background knowledge shapes your critical thinking
  • Acquire skills for writing persuasive essays and citing sources properly
  • Explore the effects of tribalism on critical thinking and decision-making

About This Course

How to improve your grades, advance in your job and expand your mind -- by learning how to think for yourself!

  For long-term success in school, business and life, learning HOW to think is far more important than learning WHAT to think.  

          Yet rather than serve as the core of any education worthy of a rational human being, we have relegated the teaching of logic, argument analysis and critical reasoning to specialty courses in universities that reach too few students, too late in their education. 

  In this course I share my growing understanding of these topics, with a focus on what is practically important and useful for developing as independent critical thinkers. 

  Currently the course contains over 200 videos totalling over 19 hours of viewing time

         Among the topics you will learn: 

  • why critical thinking is important

  • the difference between logic and argumentation

  • what makes an argument good or bad

  • the importance of background knowledge for critical thinking

  • techniques of argument analysis and reconstruction

  • what our growing understanding of the human mind tells us about how we actually form beliefs and make decisions

  • how tribalism and political polarization affect our ability to think critically

  • how scientific debates often turn on the meanings of key terms, like "theory", "law", and "hypothesis"

  • how to reason about chance and uncertainty

  • how to write a good argumentative essay

  • how to cite sources and avoid plagiarism in your writing

         and much more! This content is drawn from a variety of teaching resources I've developed over the past few years, including a video podcast. 

        It's important for you to know that I am continuing to add videos and course modules on a regular basis. This course will continue to grow and grow -- I have a LOT OF GROUND that I want to cover! This is ONLY THE BEGINNING!  

  • fundamental concepts of critical thinking (logic, argument analysis, rhetoric, reasoning with probabilities, the importance of background knowledge, etc.)

  • the importance of critical thinking for personal development, participation in democratic society, and the pursuit of wisdom

  • the role that critical thinking principles play in good essay writing

Course Curriculum

42 Lectures

1 Lectures

Instructor

Profile photo of Kevin deLaplante
Kevin deLaplante

I'm a philosopher of science by training, and I've taught philosophy and critical thinking at the university level for twenty years.  From 2009-2013 I was Chair of the Department of Philosophy & Religious Studies at Iowa State University.  In 2015 I left my tenured academic job to pursue a career as an independent online educator. I produce video tutorial courses...

Review
4.9 course rating
4K ratings
ui-avatar of Kamila Wojewoda
Kamila W.
4.5
7 months ago

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ui-avatar of Huks_x Huks_x
Huks_x H.
5.0
8 months ago

The instructor’s excellent explanations. The course is well-structured, and the mobile-friendly format, along with comprehensive documentation, makes learning enjoyable. Highly recommended!”

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ui-avatar of Salvador Mena
Salvador M.
5.0
8 months ago

The presentation is great, I just want to learn more.

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ui-avatar of Christopher Smith
Christopher S.
5.0
8 months ago

GREAT COURSE!!!

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ui-avatar of Nicholas James Cortez
Nicholas J. C.
5.0
9 months ago

Well, this course wasn't so bad, I'm just figuring how I would use this in a way that's authentic to me any day I need it, that's all :)
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ui-avatar of Selvinatarajan 2015
Selvinatarajan 2.
5.0
9 months ago

clear explanation

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ui-avatar of Ismael Banada
Ismael B.
4.5
9 months ago

i love it already, 10 mins in

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ui-avatar of Stephanie Moolman
Stephanie M.
4.0
9 months ago

I find myself more often in situations where I really need to apply critical thinking to arguments and planning for the future, and so far it seems to deliver on what I expected.

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ui-avatar of Karthick G
Karthick G.
4.5
9 months ago

Amazing and useful

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ui-avatar of Vissen Chettiar
Vissen C.
4.0
9 months ago

Interesting and valid points

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