Page 177 - Smart Thinking: Skills for Critical Understanding and Writing, 2nd Ed

164 ANSWERS, DISCUSSION, AND FURTHER ADVICE

interpret it as a claim about what the person has imagined; rather, the phrase 'I
imagine that' is a limitation on the certainty of the claim: the person making this
claim really does not know for sure whether or not media reporting will be very
extensive and uses that phrase to tell us so. The scope, on the other hand, is quite
broad: media implies television, radio, and newspaper. Well-formed claims do not
use confusing phrases like 'I imagine that'. Media reporting may well have con-
siderable connotative aspects, depending on who was reading the claim.
f Some politicians argued that media reporting at the time of the Northern
Territory legislation encouraged some terminally ill people to move there.
An indirect descriptive claim with no real connotations (which are however very
evident in the original claim).

Exercise 5.2

Generally speaking, I would judge that claims b, e, and f would be 'self-evident' to
a general adult audience. They would, in effect, provide or hint at their own
argument for foundation. Claim d is not self-evident because it is an explicit value
claim. Few, if any, value claims can ever be safely regarded as self-evident because
there are so many competing value systems at work in the world (and within
Australia). Claims a and c involve strong implied values that would, among some
members of the Australian population, create sufficient doubt for the claims not to
be self-evident. Finally, the main reason for regarding a single claim to be self-
evident is that all opposing claims are already disproved and/or the general knowl-
edge of the broad community is good enough to provide a convincing argument
for the claim, as, for example, in claim f.
If the idea of a 'general adult audience' posed problems for you, then that's
good! Reflect on the need to have a well-developed understanding of which claims
may or may not be regarded as self-evident.

Exercise 5.3

To support claim a, we could try a scholarly work on recent political history; alter-
natively, members of a communist (or ex-communist) country might provide support
from their experience. Personal memories might be relevant authority for claim b;
other good sources of authority would be a history book or, to be precise, the
government legislation enacted in that year that authorised the introduction of
television (see chapter 8 on direct sources). Claim c would, again, draw upon histor-
ical or political books for authority. Claim d is probably too contentious for an
authority to be widely available or accepted. Perhaps we could use a report by social,
medical, or legal experts. Claim e, on the other hand, could again be sourced from a
political or history book. Note, however, possible disagreements about the term
'main'. A doctor or a medical textbook would be two sources of authority for claim f.