Page 54 - Smart Thinking: Skills for Critical Understanding and Writing, 2nd Ed

UNDERSTANDING THE LINKS BETWEEN CLAIMS 41

If you look carefully, you will see that, individually, none of the premises
support the conclusion. How, for example, does a claim about the economic
benefits of tourism help us to accept that Australia's natural environment should be
protected? It does not, unless it is combined with all the other premises. In adding
all four premises together in this manner, there is a process of cross-linking going
on, in which a connection between two ideas in one claim is extended to a third
idea via another claim, and so on, through to the conclusion. This argument is
giving one reason—regarding economic benefit—for protecting the Australian
environment. The way this reason leads to the conclusion is too complex, however,
to be handled by just one or two premises. Instead, to make sure that the relation-
ship of economics to the environment is made clear, four premises are added
together in a group.

Exercise 4.1

Write two arguments or explanations (expressed as a list of claims) that match the
following generic argument structure. Choose issues about which you have some
knowledge or that are important to you at the moment.

0^0

Y
0

Using independent premises
There is nothing in the analytical structure as such that prevents us from using
single, independent premises where each premise offers a reason for the con-
clusion that is independent of other premises. Here is another version of the
example about the environment, but this time none of the premises are
dependent on one another. Note the three arrows, one for each 'reason', in the
diagram.
1. Australia's natural environment should be protected.
2. Environmental protection improves the quality of life for all
Australians.
3. Protecting the natural environment will benefit the economy.
4. If Australia's natural environment is looked after, then other countries
might follow our example.