Argument-Checking and Critical Thinking

Timetable

March - June, 2025

Module aim (aims)

The current overload of information in media poses problems of mis- and disinformation, challenging the capacity of people to critically determine what to believe and what to do. We are increasingly aware that we experience European discourse as a set of informational packages, arguments designed to be convincing and uncritically assimilated, not to be scrutinized or questioned. Which information is accurate? How to tell which source is reliable or not? Such questions are crucial for enhancing the critical thinking abilities of European citizens and the development of a sustainable European future. This course aims to train students in the skills and competencies required for critically analyzing and interpreting arguments. The course consists of four parts: we lead the participants from the general conceptual frame of information processing to hands-on experiences in analyzing arguments expressed in natural languages. We start with some logical basis, focusing on the types of reasoning and inference as information processing cognitive activities and people’s common missteps in making judgments. Then, we turn to elements of the cognitive basis of critical thinking, identifying the mind’s contribution to creating the representation of the world, particularly perception and memory issues and biases in reasoning. Subsequently, we address the question: how can abilities for critical thinking be improved? Here we train the participants in argument detection, mapping, and identification of argument type. Finally, we introduce a rigorous framework for representing and assessing arguments in texts and discourses and apply it to language-in-use examples of scientific and everyday argumentation

 

Having completed this course, students will be able to:

• identify and evaluate various types of reasoning processes and typical errors associated with them;
• understand common cognitive issues in information processing;
• assess various types of arguments in language-in-use texts by asking critical questions;
• represent and analyze discourse in the European context in order to evaluate its credibility.

Pre-requisites in terms of knowledge, skills and social competences (where relevant)

English (B1 or higher).

Syllabus

Part I: Logical basis

• Reasoning – what is it?

 

• Two-process theories of information processing: pros, cons, and lessons learned

 

• Errors in reasoning: a framework

Part II: Cognitive basis

• Perception as a construction

 

• Memory as a construction

 

• It is hard to be rational

Part III: Argument-checking

• Argument detection and mapping

 

• Argument type identification

 

• Argument assessment

Part IV: Representing natural language arguments

• Argumentative utterances between semantics and pragmatics

 

• Argumentative adpositional trees unleashed

 

• Text and discourse annotation in adpositional argumentation

 

Reading list