Author Archives: Peter Ellerton

About Peter Ellerton

Director of the University of Queensland Critical Thinking Project and Lecturer in Critical Thinking.

Misunderstanding Statistics

Another Dilbert moment…

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How to teach all students to think critically

By Peter Ellerton, The University of Queensland All first year students at the University of Technology Sydney could soon be required to take a compulsory maths course in an attempt to give them some numerical thinking skills. The new course … Continue reading

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Who is ‘you’?

An exploration of what we might mean by ‘me’. First – Identity short film (very good for class discussion) Second   Who am I? – very useful website as well.

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The 2015 Queensland Philosophy and Reason syllabus

Did you know Queensland has Taught Philosophy and Logic as a senior subject for around 100 years?  Here is the new syllabus.  Notice the focus on the skill of argumentation. Queensland Senior Philosophy and Reason syllabus

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Are we individual or social creatures?

How does the concept of individuality affect politics? Commentary from The Stone New York Times. Here’s a pdf Evolution and the American Myth of the Individual – NYTimes.com

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The Ethics of Robot Cars

How about robot cars with ethics settings adjusted to suite the driver? Here’s a Terrible Idea: Robot Cars With Adjustable Ethics Settings Here’s a PDF

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Free Will and the Genome Project

From Philosophy and Public Affairs – click here for PDF

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Watch what you think….

What you think is right may actually be wrong – here’s why By Peter Ellerton We like to think that we reach conclusions by reviewing facts, weighing evidence and analysing arguments. But this is not how humans usually operate, particularly … Continue reading

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Hume’s criticism of the design argument

Hume-Dialogues – Jeff Speaks

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Another resource for Fallacies of Reasoning

Great resource and very accessible to students.  

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Biased sample? Circular reasoning?

Discuss.

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Science and Conspiracy

A useful resource produced by NASA debunking claims that the moon landings were faked. Debunking moon landing conspiracies

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The Limits of Imagination

Discuss  

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What use Philosophy?

Discuss.  

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Truth Puzzles booklet

A useful teaching resource in deductive logic.  Booklet of logic puzzles. Truth Puzzles

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Can We Choose To Believe Something?

Discuss  

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Honesty and Charity in Arguments

From NYTimes – By GARY GUTTING, The Stone Link – As a philosophy professor, I spend much of my time thinking about the arguments put forward by professional philosophers. As a citizen (and an occasional columnist for The Stone), I also spend lots of … Continue reading

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A Useful Introduction to Critical Thinking Skills

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Analogy

Another analogy brought to you by Dilbert.

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Whose brain is it? Consciousness, free will and the brain.

If ‘I’ change ‘my’ mind?  Then where do ‘I’ fit in?

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