Page 78 - Smart Thinking: Skills for Critical Understanding and Writing, 2nd Ed

MORE EFFECTIVE REASONING I: BETTER CLAIMS 65

there is no 'source' to check up on. In claim c, the authority is that of someone
who has studied a subject and is, presumably, an expert on such matters. In
claim d, the authority comes not from study, but from relevant personal
experience—that is, experience that does, in fact, help to establish the claim.
Claim e provides another significant type of authority: the authority of personal
experience in relation to one's own life (one is usually an expert on one's own
life, though not always). Claim f is different again, and a significant form of
authority in most scientific and social science research. As noted above, authors
can present claims as being self-evidently true via the audience's trust that they
are accurate researchers, investigators, and thinkers. In this case, we simply find
an explicit statement that calls upon that trust. But, in each case, the inclusion
of some reference to authority functions to support the truthfulness of the
claim, and in that respect, there is more similarity than difference between the
five examples.

Exercise 5.3

For each of the following, indicate an appropriate authority to whom you might
refer if required to establish the foundation of these claims. Remember, you are
not reasoning here but are referring to some source of reasoning about the claim:
a. Communism has failed.
b. Television was introduced to Australia in 1956.
c. Australia is a democracy.
d. We should legalise marijuana.
e. The two main political parties are the Liberal Party of Australia and the
Australian Labor Party.
f. A broken leg requires immediate medical treatment.
Let us at this stage return to the analytical structure format to show how we
might represent these calls to authority. First of all, think about the way that the list
of claims is designed to express clearly what we mean. Imagine we wish to claim
that 'Australian history is marked by considerable conflict and tension over the
competing interests of labour and capital' and use as support the fact that a compe-
tent, respected historian such as John Rickard has also made this claim in his book
Australia: A Cultural History. We would write:
1. The Australian government should continue to regulate industrial rela-
tions practice and policy.
2. Australian history is marked by considerable conflict and tension over
the competing industrial interests of labour and capital.
3. Rickard, Australia-. A Cultural History (1992) asserts claim 2.
4. These conflicts and tensions have been resolved, by and large, by
government intervention.
5. It is unlikely that, in future, the conflict that results from the
competing industrial interests of labour and capital will decline.