This module serves as an introduction into critical thinking, with a special focus on the foundations of symbolic and informal logic, including propositional logic and probability calculus. The module exposes students to the basics of building effective and sound arguments and some methodologies of modelling arguments formally, to a selection of fallacies of thinking and argumentation and introduces them to a couple of cognitive biases that affect even scientific thinking independently of the field of research.
The primary vehicle of instruction is a sequence of puzzles and questions which the students need to solve with increasing autonomy. But it also plunges into some formal theories of logic and probability only to develop a toolkit that helps in the analysis of the puzzles in question. The starting point will include riddles, known brain teasers as well as classic puzzles. By being exposed to progressively more difficult problems, students gather knowledge and gain confidence to tackle more and more complex problems and leverage to reflect upon dilemmas of scientific disciplines they are interested in.