Against the Algorithm: Critical Thinking as a Way of Life

Catalog description

Your mind is your most valuable possession. It is under siege. You are constantly targeted with misinformation, AI slop, algorithmic echo chambers, deepfakes, weaponized outrage, and the subtle force of digital conformity. Your best protection is to become a critical thinker. But critical thinking is not just about having a set of tools; it is a way of life. You must move beyond the checklist of logical fallacies, cognitive biases, and argument forms and focus on the character traits and habits required for intellectual survival. It is about becoming the kind of human being who can handle uncertainty, disagreement, and evidence well. In short, it requires the habitual cultivation of intellectual virtue: humility, honesty, charity, autonomy, responsibility, courage, and perseverance. Successfully doing so will allow us to flourish. This course will give you the opportunity to explore, through philosophy, the meaning of these intellectual virtues and give you the chance to explicitly begin practicing them. The course is structured around two complete passes through the intellectual virtues. Each virtue will be paired with philosophical texts of practical value. For example, we will explore intellectual honesty by learning how to genuinely engage with "the other side", explore intellectual humility via the common trap of epistemic trespassing, and frame intellectual responsibility around time and attention management. All evaluations are designed to help you track your success, confront behavioral blind spots, and ensure that you continue on the path to becoming a critical thinker.