Logics and Argumentation

- Develop inferential and argumentative skills;
- Learn to identify and reconstruct arguments;
- Learn to evaluate arguments, distinguishing good from bad arguments (fallacies);
- Learn to use formal logic tools (elements of propositional and predicate logic) in order to evaluate deductive reasoning;
- Learn to use informal logic tools in order to evaluate non deductive reasoning;
- Learn to identify and analyse fallacies occurring in political discourse.

At the end of the course, the student will be familiar with the language of contemporary logic, and the main informal logic devices for the analysis and evaluation of reasoning, in science as well as in public communication. The student will know how to symbolize arguments expressed in ordinary language using the tools of propositional and predicative logic, and will be able to apply this knowledge to test the validity of formal arguments. The student will also be able to reconstruct and evaluate informal arguments expressed in ordinary discourse applying a considerable set of argumentation schemes, and taking into account the context of their utterance.