Page 24 - Smart Thinking: Skills for Critical Understanding and Writing, 2nd Ed

CLAIMS: THE KEY ELEMENTS OF REASONING 1 1

assumptions about the meanings of words and ideas that lie behind it, and other texts
that, though absent, are implicitly connected with what is being written and read
here. For example, a student who reads this book as the textbook for the Open
Learning Australia unit Applied Reasoning has a very different context to someone
who is just browsing through it, casually looking for quick ideas about critical
thinking.
Assumptions are a primary component of context. Assumptions are those ideas
or values that we 'take for granted' and do not question. To be smart thinkers we
must recognise the assumptions that surround us (including our own) and that
influence every argument and explanation. Reasoning involves making connections
between our ideas about the world, expressing them as linked claims, and
constructing a text to express that knowledge. Obviously this reasoning is a
conscious process, but it also draws upon a background of implicit or assumed
connections and structures. As we grow up and learn about our environment (from
parents, school, and so on), all sorts of connections are made for us and become
embedded in our minds, so that we do not even realise we are relying on these
structures when we think. For example:
In the nineteenth century, Australian children were often warned that the
'black bogeyman' would get them if they were naughty. This apparently
mild threat created an association in children's minds between 'Blacks'
(indigenous Australians) and something dangerous. Is it any wonder, then,
that when these children grew into adults they continued to act and think
about indigenous Australians in extremely racist ways?
What makes assumptions dangerous is not their content (unlike the
previous example, the content of assumptions may actually be correct) but,
rather, that they are not consciously considered and tested to see if they are
correct. What matters first is to be conscious of the assumption so we can ask
'is this true?'.
Smart thinkers must be capable of understanding how each of these four levels
of language use relates to one another, and of how to write good statements, link
them together to make a text, and consider the contextual factors that bear upon
their text.

Statements that are claims

Our central focus for the moment is on a particular type of statement: the claim.
Here are two examples of claims:

• Prior to the war on Iraq in 2003, more Australians opposed the war
than supported it.
• John Howard, Australian Prime Minister in 2003, determined that
Australian military forces should be deployed to participate in the war
on Iraq.