[Athena]

Quote by: rez Currently I am taking a Philosophy course called "critically thinking". The basic premise of the course is to analyze reasoning and conclusions. We discuss.... Transposition. Double Negation Modus Ponens Modus Tollens Pure Hypothetical Syllogism Disjunctive Syllogism Conditionalization Some other things that help are simply Computer Science courses. Learn Javascript PHP CSS Java ASP.net 2.0 VB.net If you exercise with these languages then you can apply this thinking to any political science or philosophy course. Even take a science course! Learn about how Chemistry works or how Biology works. Basically learn the facts before learning anything about the silly imaganitive things like "heaven, democracy, gods, angels, devils, and ghosts".

Excellent suggestions, but I am surprised you did not mention math. Math is a valuable thinking tool. I can not think of anything we can not study with math.

"In reality, logic simply has to do with the idea of letting one general pattern stand for a whole range of special cases. The use of logical technics enables us to move back and forth between lumpy formulas and smooth mathematical shapes. By a kind of idealization, logic lets a single symbol stand for an inefffably complex reality." Mind Tools by Rudy Rucker

"The studies that Plato specified as most effective in preparing the mind for understanding are the so-called mathematical subjects, consisting of number itself, music, geometry, and astronomy. These were the main studies of Pythagoras and his followers, who anticipated the realization of modern physics in proclaiming that all scales and departments of nature were linked by the same code of number. Geometry is the purest visible expression of number. In Platonic terms, the effect of its study is to lead the mind upward from Opinion onto the level of Reason, where its premises are rooted. It then provides the bridge or ladder by which the mind can achieve its highest level in the realm of pure intelliegnce. " A Beginners Guide to th Constructing the Universe" by Michael S. Schneider

I think the problem with this, is it does not engage emotions like the normal debates we have, that engage our emotions. We share our opinions here, and as many posters say, not reasoning. I think unless our emotions are engaged, we are unmotivated to give the thinking process our energy. So we argue over and over again if there is a God, which is a completely irrational behavior, considering it is impossible to study God as we study nature, but the subject excites our emotions so we love it. On the other hand, a logical subject such as the order of bureaucracy and relationship to individual liberty is, completely ignored. We have not been properly educated for logic thinking. We have been programming our young to be parts for the Borg, and coponents of the Borg only need good programming, not the ability to think.

Oh, oh, I do however, think, computer science is better than astromony. Excellent choice.