Page 89 - Smart Thinking: Skills for Critical Understanding and Writing, 2nd Ed

76 SMART THINKING: SKILLS FOR CRITICAL UNDERSTANDING & WRITING

b. Now, first of all, privatisation leads to competition and, when there is
competition, prices go down and service improves. People want reduced
prices and improved service in the postal system and so the government
postal service should be privatised.
c. Several politicians have been discovered to have lied in public; many
rarely seem to have much knowledge of what their voters want; and
generally, politicians get too many benefits. Hence we should not trust
them to make good decisions on our behalf.

Ensuring premises are relevant

But what if the connection between a premise and a conclusion is not obvious? A
crucial smart-thinking skill is the ability to think through how evidence relates to a
conclusion, and how apparently irrelevant material does indeed help to prove or
establish a conclusion. Making sure premises are relevant to a conclusion requires
careful analysis of the possible connections between them. As noted above, the key
question is whether or not the premises are concerned with the same issue as the
conclusion and, hence, whether they are capable of telling us something about it. A
way to check this relationship is to ask, in the case of arguments, 'if this premise were
true, would it make the conclusion more likely to be true' or, for explanations, 'if this
premise were true, would it make it easier to understand why the events stated in the
conclusion happened'. Equally, we must think about the way in which our knowledge
of other events and ideas might help us to see the relevance of one particular claim in
establishing another and thus prevent us from 'missing' an important relevant premise.
Presenting relevant premises is also about making it clear that they are relevant.
In other words, use a claim, as part of a linked chain of premises, to show the rele-
vance of the premises to the conclusion. An effective argument or explanation not
only reflects careful thinking, but also clearly demonstrates it, so others can follow
your reasoning. Here is an example of how to establish relevance:
1. Australia's universities are of a high quality.
2. Australian university graduates report that their lecturers are, gener-
ally speaking, good at communicating.
3. All universities now have quality-assurance programs to maintain
quality.
4. Australia's universities attract many overseas students to them.