Profs and Pints Baltimore presents: “A Crash Course on Critical Thinking,” on ways to train your brain to better sort what’s true from what’s false, with Andrew Bridges, adjunct professor of philosophy at University of Maryland, Baltimore County and longtime teacher of courses on critical thinking and ethics.

Why do smart people believe ‘obviously’ wrong things? What makes one belief better than another?

Andy Bridges has spent more than a decade teaching college students the intellectual skills needed to deal with the fundamental tension between their inherent desire to firmly understand their world and the fuzzy, uncomfortably vague nature of the reality around them.

If you sometimes find your head spinning as you try to figure out what’s true in watching the news, scrolling through social media, or simply living your life, you’ll benefit from coming to the Perch in Federal Hill to let Professor Bridges help you hone your critical thinking skills. Even if you already think of yourself as a critical thinker, we all could benefit from a refresher course sometimes.

We’ll start with the idea that beliefs differ in quality and consider what makes some beliefs “better” than others. We’ll talk about beliefs based on evidence versus beliefs based on impulse, beliefs open to revision versus beliefs immune to it, precisely defined beliefs versus beliefs too vague to be tested. You’ll be invited to consider how you acquired the beliefs you hold today and what has made you change your mind about certain things.

From there we’ll venture into the thicket of language and consider how many public debates are actually fights over definitions and, for example, the meaning of terms such as “justice,” “terrorism,” “artificial intelligence,” “fake news,” and even “human.” You’ll learn how words are not magic containers of meaning but carry social, emotional, and ideological baggage, and how disagreements in the absence of shared definitions just turn into noise.

Finally, we’ll spend time discussing the cognitive traps we fall into—not because we’re dumb, but because we’re human. Confirmation bias, the Straw Man Fallacy, the False Dilemma, and the Appeal to Emotion all will make an appearance at the bar.

We may never have perfect beliefs, but there’s value in the pursuit of them by making a daily habit of trying to understand better, speak more clearly, listen more deeply, and remain open to change. The real value to this talk might be in what you’ll learn down the road. (Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Bar doors open at 5 pm. The talk starts at 6:30.)

Image: Part of “The Thinker in The Gates of Hell” by François Auguste René Rodin (From a photo by Jean-Pierre Dalbéra / Wikimedia Commons.)