Page 34 - Smart Thinking: Skills for Critical Understanding and Writing, 2nd Ed

CLAIMS: THE KEY ELEMENTS OF REASONING 2 1

with global warming [c] because previous governments were blind to the con-
sequences of industrial growth and technology [p]\ the conclusion reports that there
is now a problem with global warming so that the premise can explain why this has
happened. Some explanations can be characterised as justifications, as in 'I decided to
vote for the Greens at the last federal election [c] because I am very keen to see
Australia's environment protected [p]'. In this example, the conclusion reports
something that happened so that the writer can justify why they did it.

Exercise 2.8

Try to work out what sort of conclusion is used in each of the following. Remember
to think about the purpose that the conclusion is designed to fulfil. In each
example the conclusion is the second claim in the sentence.
a. Since the bushfire threat is high in the next three months, we should
improve our fire-fighting service.
b. Since there has been no rain recently, I forecast that there will be a high
bushfire threat this coming summer.
c. Because the government failed to improve the fire services, the bushfires
that occurred in 2001 were much harder to control than in previous years.
d. The government has not done much to improve the fire-fighting service—
don't you think that it is inefficient?
e. Because the budget deficit has required the government to make many
cut-backs in spending, we have done little to increase available fire-
fighting resources [assume that a government representative is speaking].

More on premises

While a basic outline of the different types of conclusions is relatively straight-
forward, there is no similar, straightforward approach for different types of
premises. Virtually any claim you can think of can serve as a premise. Even claims
that we might normally think of as conclusions can be premises. All that premises
have to do is to be able to provide support for the conclusion (either in explaining
it or arguing for it). Thus, premises tend in most cases to be initially more accept-
able than the conclusion (though not always—see 'Strength of support' in chapter
6). Furthermore, it is misleading to think about individual premise 'types'; instead,
we should look at the way in which premises connect with one another. In short,
premises function in three ways: they make a substantive point (i.e. report
something, or provide some kind of evidence), they can define some term in the
argument, or they can frame the other premises, demonstrating more clearly the
relationship of all the other premises to the conclusion (see chapter 4 for more
details on how premises function).