Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking, 8th Ed by M. Neil Browne & Stuart M. Keeley

Author:M. Neil Browne & Stuart M. Keeley [Browne, M. Neil & Keeley, Stuart M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Critical Thinking, critical thinking; writing
Published: 2011-01-07T03:04:18.480000+00:00

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Chapter 8

supporting a prescriptive conclusion. In this case, we want to ask, "Is that reason-a factual claim-justified by the evidence?"

(c) Our country needs to decrease its dependency on fossil fuels. Although hybrid cars are expensive, they are an excellent means to lower gas and oil consumption in America. Also, our government needs to pursue alternative energy sources at all costs because our oil dependency is leading our country to unfavorable international actions. (Unstated descriptive assumption linking the reasons to the conclusion: The monetary costs of switching to

cars and alternative energy sources are

jar less than the political

to decreasing

on fossil fuels.)

This factual claim is a descriptive assumption, which may or may not be dependable. Before we believe the assumption, and thus the reason, we want to ask, "How well does evidence support the assumption?" You will find that while many communicators perceive the desirability of supporting their reasons with evidence, they don't see the need to make their assumptions explicit. Thus, evidence for assumptions is rarely presented, even though in many cases such evidence would be quite helpful in deciding the quality of an argument.

Sources of Evidence

When should we accept a factual claim as dependable? There are three instances in which we will be most inclined to agree with a factual claim: 1. when the claim appears to be undisputed common knowledge, such as the claim "weight lifting increases muscular body mass;"

2. when the claim is the conclusion from a well-reasoned argument; 3. when the claim is adequately supported by solid evidence in the same communication or by other evidence that we know.

Our concern in this chapter is the third instance. Determining the adequacy of evidence requires us to ask,

good is the evidence?" To answer

this question, we must first ask, 'What do we mean by Attention: Evidence is explicit information shared by the communicator that is used t o back

or t o justify the dependability o f a factual claim (see Chapter

In prescriptive arguments, evidence will be needed t o support reasons that are factual claims; in descriptive arguments, evidence be needed t o directly support a descriptive conclusion.

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