Thanks. By the way, how do you understand the value that the Sages attributed to Torah study by very young children? What is the meaning of what they say at all, if from their perspective it would also have been perfectly possible to have them memorize the Quran?

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A course in critical reading/thinking has now been opened.
Those interested are asked to register as soon as possible. Starting tomorrow, the course schedule will be set in coordination with the participants who registered via WhatsApp.

With God's help,
Critical Thinking and Reading – Preliminary Syllabus
Michael Abraham

The course will be conducted on Zoom over the course of ten sessions of about an hour each, for registrants only (if necessary, there will be additional sessions). It will deal with critiquing arguments (not necessarily written ones). In essence, this is critical thinking and not only critical reading. The course includes homework assignments (not for submission), as well as a final paper for those interested.
For now, recordings will not be accessible except to participants who missed a class.
Registration is through joining the WhatsApp group: https://chat.whatsapp.com/LrEY99fgJmXB1kseMJgGHk
The cost of the course is 250 NIS per participant.

A. Logic
Sentences and propositions.
Validity and truth: arguments and rules of inference.
Substantive and formal logic.
Axioms and theorems.
The emptiness of the analytic. Pluralism and narratives.
Deduction, induction, abduction, and analogy.

B. Principles in the critique of arguments
Premises, validity, and conclusion.
Counterexamples.
Raising difficulties and offering forced resolutions (the meaning of the starting point).
"The New Criticism": postmodernism.

C. Definitions
By extension and intension.
Circularity of definition.
The importance of definitions and their source.
Definition and truth.

D. Paradoxes
Defining paradox.
How to relate to them and to their conclusions.
What counts as a solution to a paradox?
Paradox as a proof by contradiction.
 
E. Logic and everyday language
The principle of charity.
Completing arguments (enthymemes: incomplete arguments and "soft" arguments).
Exposing hidden premises.

F. How to deal with axioms
Intuition.
Logic and rhetoric.
Cognition and thought.
Examples and counterexamples.

G. Overcoming dichotomies
Dilemma arguments.
Compromise.
The third way.

H. Fallacies
Ad hominem, ad populum, and the like.
The naturalistic fallacy.
Begging the question: is it a fallacy?
Examples of begging the question in analytic arguments.
Falsifiability: science and argument. Corroboration and confirmation.
Correlation fallacies: spurious correlations. Correlation and causation.
The magic of using numbers and data: statistical fallacies.

I. Practical guidelines for critical reading
Suspending judgment.
A full and empathetic formulation of the argument under critique.
Clarifying one’s relation to the premises.
Checking validity.
How to relate to the conclusion (paradoxicality).

J. Examples
Critical reading of articles and philosophical topics

K. Final paper – for those interested
Each participant receives or chooses an article (preferably one that runs counter to his initial view), and presents a critical analysis of it.