Introduction to critical thinking, the examination of the reasons (grounds, evidence) for claims on any subject matter. Mastery of central concepts of critical thinking: argument, claim, validity and invalidity, strength and weakness, deduction and induction, fallacy, objection and response. Techniques for critical reconstruction and evaluation of arguments, including ethical ones. Formal logic techniques for evaluation of truth-functional and categorical arguments, akin to mechanical computation or derivation. Application of techniques to arguments appearing in ordinary language passages.