The Nature of Arguments

The second of six lectures dealing with critical reasoning. In this lecture you will learn about the different types of arguments, in particular deductive and inductive arguments. 

Part three of a six-part series on critical reasoning. In this lecture we will focus on how to identify and analyse arguments, and how to set arguments out logic book-style to make them easier to evaluate. 

Part four of a six-part series on critical reasoning. In this lecture we will learn how to evaluate arguments and how to tell whether an argument is good or bad, focusing specifically on inductive arguments. 

In this first lecture, using Descartes famous argument for the claim “I think therefore I am’, we examine how to identify and evaluate arguments. 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Ontological Argument. In the eleventh century St Anselm of Canterbury proposed that it was possible to prove the existence of God using reason alone. His argument was ridiculed by some of his contemporaries, but was analysed and improved by ... Show More

Whenever you get into an argument, whether you're discussing politics with a colleague or the distribution of chores with your spouse, you likely feel like you're floundering. You feel worked up, but you don't feel like you're getting your point across, much less convincing the o ... Show More

James Grant, Lecturer in Philosophy at Oxford University, introduces some of the key concepts in philosophical debates about global poverty. He then discusses Peter Singer's argument that not donating to aid agencies is as wrong as letting a drowning child die. 

Fourth lecture in the Philosophy of Religion lecture series. 

Logic and Argument: the joys of symbolic and philosophical logic. 

Fifth lecture in the Philosophy of Religion lecture series. 

This lecture discusses key ideas from the Medieval philosopher, theologian, and Dominican friar, Thomas Aquinas, and focuses on his Summa Theologiae, Prima Pars, q. 2. It focuses upon his discussion in article 2, bearing on whether God's existence can be proven or demonstrated by ... Show More

learn how to develop an argument