Page 90 - Smart Thinking: Skills for Critical Understanding and Writing, 2nd Ed

MORE EFFECTIVE REASONING II: BETTER LINKS 7 7

Claim 3 mentions the words 'university' and 'quality' and is demonstrably rele-
vant through this word-similarity with claim 1. Claim 2, while possibly relevant (it
certainly mentions some evidence—good communication by university teachers—
that we might assume to be relevant), depends on exactly what the conclusion is
trying to say. Claim 1, the conclusion, is not well formed. It is vague since it does
not make clear whether it is claiming that all aspects of universities are of a high
quality or whether (as hinted at by the premises) it is merely the teaching function
of universities that is of a high quality (leaving aside, for example, research work).
So the first mistake here is that the conclusion's vagueness makes it unclear
whether the premises are relevant. Claim 4 exhibits another problem with relevance.
It may, for example, be that overseas students come to Australia because studying here
is cheap, or because they like the climate in Australia. Claim 4 becomes a relevant
premise only if the reason for the students' preference for Australia is based on the
quality of the universities. So the second mistake is that another premise ought to have
been added to make clear how claim 4 is relevant to claim 1. We might say that, while
claim 3 is self-evidently relevant (it provides, in the word 'quality', its own evidence
of how it bears on the conclusion), claim 4 is not self-evidently relevant and therefore
needs an additional, dependent premise to provide this evidence.

Exercise 6.3

For each of the following claims, write three claims that, in your view, are relevant
to showing either why they are true or why they are false (depending on whether
you agree with the claims or not).
a. Voting at elections should be compulsory.
b. Protecting the environment is more important than economic development.
c. Australia's unique cultural identity is being overwhelmed by imported
American culture.
d. Everyone should own a personal computer.

The special role of framing premises

A framing premise, discussed in chapter 4, is one that in many cases functions to
make other premises (in the same chain) relevant to a conclusion—to provide the
extra information that, when combined with other claims, shows how they relate
to the conclusion. Let us look again at the argument about quality universities. The
relevance of claim 4 to claim 1 was not clear. However, if we added another claim
to it, 'Overseas students generally seek to study at high-quality universities' (claim
5), then the relevance to claim 1 of this specific piece of evidence would be clearer.
We should remember that claims initially connect two component parts. In this
case, claim 1 connects universities and quality; claim 4, on the surface, relates
universities with another issue—overseas students. This problem can be overcome
only if the third claim, claim 5, links together overseas students with quality.