"I'll pay you $5 – if you wash my car" your father promises your kid sister.  An hour
later she is running around the house, happily waving a five dollar bill.  Do you conclude
that she had washed the car?  Most people would, in explicit violation of logical rules.

Human superiority over other animals is normally summarized in one word:
RATIONALITY.  Our great achievements are attributed to this unique capacity:
language, arts, sciences, social order, legal systems and survival skills.  Yet, the same
species that finds a cure for cancer, sends people to the moon, and maintains
sophisticated social organizations also engages in pointless wars, racism, gambling,
biased decision making, and by and large demonstrates consistent and predictable failure
to follow simple rules of logic.

In investigating the complicated relations between logic and human everyday
performance we'll cover some principles of logical theories, uncover major inferential
failures, examine critically major theories of human reasoning and explore the rational
behind the apparent human irrationality.

Students are expected to take two tests, write several short papers, offer one group
presentation and develop a lively intellectual curiosity about the ways our mind works.