Page 52 - Smart Thinking: Skills for Critical Understanding and Writing, 2nd Ed

4

Understanding the

Links between Claims

Linking claims involves two distinct processes, as signalled by the + and 4
symbols used in analytical structure diagrams. The first process involves con-
nections between premises and other premises; the second between premises and
a conclusion. We must explore these links in more detail in order to understand,
first, the analysis that lies behind such connections and, second, how to represent
them accurately in the analytical structure format. Of course, in practice, the
process of representation often allows us to clarify what we are thinking.
This chapter will cover three main issues:
1 We will look at the way premises almost always work with other premises
in providing a reason for a conclusion. What we think of as 'a reason' may,
in the analytical structure, require many claims to express all its complex-
ities. These claims add together to form a chain of dependent premises.
2 We will extend this discussion by exploring the way in which, within a
group of premises, there can be a premise that links the rest of the prem-
ises to the conclusions, and/or a premise that states a definition, making
the other premises explicable.
3 We will look at the way links are made between premises and conclusions
to better understand the process of making premises support a conclusion.

Dependent premises

Using a group of premises

A 'reason' for a conclusion usually involves many complex ideas. It will
probably require more than one premise to express all of these ideas. All such