intellect is determined not by What we believe, but how we believe.
Socratic Seminars to Foster THINKING Minds
THE PITCH: Remember that Discussion Class in grade school: the one that changed your life? where you first learned the meaning of a logical fallacy and challenged your teacher in semantics? WhERE you identified cognitive biases, not in others, but in yourself? When you put "the facts" aside and discussed what science is and why it works? Where you Discovered sound Thinking gets you farther than knowing? We don't...
But we want to change that.
Critical Thinking is terribly taught: We are more often taught what to think, not how we can think. EVEN WELL-INTENtioned, well-educated experts PROMOTE MISINFORMATION: sometimes to achieve goals, sometimes out of poor reasoning. MANY MODERN SCHOOLS, MEDIA OUTLETS, ACTIVISTS, AND TRAINING SEMINARS TELL US WHAT WE OUGHT TO BELIEVE, BUT FEW HELP US UNDERSTAND WHY WE OUGHT TO BELIEVE, BEYOND APPEALS TO AUTHORITY ("TRUST us") OR EMOTION ("DON'T YOU CARE?"). WORSE, MANY EDUCATORS HAVE REDUCED "CRITICAL THINKING" TO SIMPLY MEAN "CONSIDER OTHER PERSPECTIVES." THIS IS on the right track, but POORLY INSUFFICIENT AND FREQUENTLY BIASed: WE ARE ASKED TO CRITICALLY CHALLENGE SOME IDEAS, BUT NOT ALL, AND RARELY ARE GIVEN the TOOLS TO DO SO.
Our Solution: To be more right tomorrow than we are today - by understanding scientific reasoning (the how and why of Science), our relationships to truth (epistemology), and how to apply the former to seek the latter, Participants are Guided down a path of Philosophy of Science & Critical Thinking Strategies conveyed in practical terms through analogy and minimized jargon to feel like common sense.
the Classroom: Courses are designed for teachers to engage participants verbally (small groups in-person) or via written chats (large groups online) with challenging questions, thought experiments, and critical analysis throughout every session. Participants are asked to think, question the teacher, question themselves, and come to their own conclusions. The goal is not to teach students what to think, but to provide them tools and techniques to facilitate rational discourses within themselves and with others. We hope these courses are engaging and instill in students a lifelong desire to pursue further examination of complex topics and become ever more saavy and skeptical when it comes to information they encounter in the world.
In-Person Seminars:
Class size: no more than 20 students
Format: White Board & PowerPoint Slides, Socratic Seminar (Student Verbal Responses)
NOTE: All students should expect to be called on if able.
Online Seminars:
Class Size: No Limit
Format: PowerPoint Slides, Socratic Seminar (Student Written Chat responses)
NOTE: CHAT Function allows Socratic seminars to be reformatted for larger audiences online.
Course Lengths Available:
Standard Seminar - 1 Session (90 minutes), 2 Sessions (60 minutes each)
Overview: Philosophy of Science, Cognitive biases, logical arguments, and dialectic Tools
Pathways Seminar - 5-10 Sessions (60 minutes each)
Module 1: Certainty (Subjectivity & Objectivity)
Module 2: Logic
Module 3: Scientific Theory
Module 4: Cognitive Biases
Module 5: Dialectic Tools
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