Analytical Thinking Overview
£100 STUDENT AND CONCESSIONARY PRICE
Date: Saturday, 7th December 2024
Time: 10am GMT
This seminar will introduce you to the various elements of analytical and critical thinking. It does this from a practical perspective aiming to help you think through problems, make decisions and arrive at conclusions accurately, ensuring that you take into account all necessary factors and avoid the kinds of errors that are commonly made.
Course materials are included as well as a complimentary copy of our e-book How to Think - An Introduction to Analytical Thinking.
The seminar will include: -
- What is analytical thinking? Where is it appropriate and where not?
- How we aren't as good at thinking as we like to think we are
- The elements of analytical thinking and the rules underpinning good analysis
- Beliefs - how they form and how to ensure their accuracy
- Meaning - how fine distinctions in meaning and understanding may lead to error
- Fact based decisions - examining evidence and testing sources
- Assessing other people's opinions and beliefs and testing your own
- Cognitive biases - what are they, how they arise and strategies for overcoming them
- Extraneous factors that can adversely affect our thinking and decision making
- An overview of the formal logical structure of good (and bad) reasoning
- Fallacies - an examination of some common fallacies in reasoning
- Conclusions and decisions: ensuring we reach the right conclusion; assessing competing arguments and the potential unwelcome implications of our conclusions.
=============================================================
On completion of this course you will have a greater awareness of the limitations of your rational mind and will have been introduced to the various elements of good analytical thinking.
You will have had the opportunity to experience some of these limitations for yourself and now be familiar with ways of overcoming or working around them. You will have been introduced to an array of techniques that will ensure any thinking you do is thoroughly checked without letting your own prejudices get in the way. You will also be able to apply the same tools to review the thinking of others.
You will be aware that analytical thought has a fundamental logical structure and be aware of a number of common fallacies that people are prone to in their thinking. Having been introduced to these, you will be able to avoid them in future.
In short, you will have all the tools you need to improve the quality of your thinking and to assess the thinking of those around you.