Darren Poynton introduces his

Darren Poynton introduces his workshop session:The Argument Clinic: Logical Fallacies and Cognitive biases. How thinking about thinking can help give new perspective to old arguments.Man: Is this the right room for an argument?Other Man: I've told you once.Man: No you haven't!Other Man: Yes I have.M: When?O: Just now.M: No you didn't!O: Yes I did!M: You didn't!O: I did!M: You didn't!O: I'm telling you, I did!M: You did not!By ‘argument’ we do not mean the heated exchange of contraries a la Monty Python but instead a series of statements constructed in a particular way in order to gain support for a particular conclusion. In this crash course we will look at the basic structure of an argument, some of the common ways in which things go wrong and then we will consider some of the conclusions from behavioural science concerning the ‘predictably irrational’ mistakes we all make in our thinking and decision making. If you want to find out why ‘reductio ad hitlerum’ doesn’t always win the argument, or why the ‘confirmation bias’ is the mother of all misconceptions, a visit to the argument clinic may be just what you need.