TTC, James Hall – Tools of Thinking: Understanding the World Through Experience and Reason

What is the best way to prove a case, create a rule, solve a problem, justify an idea, invent a hypothesis, or evaluate an argument? In other words, what is the best way to think?

Everyone has to think in order to function in the world, and this course will equip you with the tools to reason effectively in your pursuit of reliable beliefs and useful knowledge. Whether you are a budding philosopher searching for ultimate truths, a science student grappling with the nature of scientific proof, a new parent weighing conflicting child-rearing advice, or a concerned citizen making up your mind about today’s issues, Tools of Thinking will help you cut through deception and faulty reasoning to get closer to the essence of a matter.

In Tools of Thinking: Understanding the World through Experience and Reason, Professor Hall turns his friendly but intellectually rigorous approach to the problem of thinking, introducing you to a wide range of effective techniques.

Course outline

1. What Are “Tools of Thinking?”
2. Which Tools of Thinking Are Basic?
3. Platonic Intuition, Memory, and Reason
4. Intuition, Memory and Reason-Problems
5. Sense Experience-A More Modern Take
6. Observation and Immediate Inferences
7. Further Immediate Inferences
8. Categorical Syllogisms
9. Ancient Logic in Modern Dress
10. Systematic Doubt and Rational Certainty
11. The Limits of Sense Experience
12. Inferences Demand Relevant Evidence
13. Proper Inferences Avoid Equivocation
14. Induction Is Slippery but Unavoidable
15. The Scientific Revolution
16. Hypotheses and Experiments-A First Look
17. How Empirical Is Modern Empiricism?
18. Hypotheses and Experiments-A Closer Look
19. “Normal Science” at Mid Century
20. Modern Logic-Truth Tables
21. Modern Logic-Sentential Logic
22. Modern Logic-Predicate Logic
23. Postmodern and New-Age Problems
24. Rational Empiricism in the 21st Century