4.11 A self-assessment 203
from ignorance’: that lack of evidence for some
claim is grounds for denying it.
This is not itself a line of reasoning that you
should have included in your answer. It is an
example of the kind of structure that you can
build into your own arguments, to develop
and strengthen your own premises. By
showing that your observations are not only
positive reasons for your conclusion, but also
that they are resistant to counter-claims and
counter-arguments, your case is strengthened
and shown to be more thoughtful, and more
critical.• In this final chapter you have had the
opportunity to apply the three core
components of critical thinking. These are:• analysing and interpreting texts
(including considerations of context,
genre, source, etc.)
• evaluating an argument
• presenting further argument of your own.Summary
explaining or clarifying. If your argument is
just a list of reasons, plainly stated, then think
about ways in which you could have enriched
and reinforced each step.
(v) Did you anticipate objections and opposing
arguments before you started, and deal with
some in your response?
One important and effective way to develop
your reasoning is to anticipate and counter
what the other side in the debate might say.
For instance, suppose one of the steps in your
argument was that more intelligent animals
are more likely to feel pain in the way humans
do, so we should spare them pain as we would
humans. One objection an opponent may
make – and some do – is that we have no
evidence of what animal pain is like, or even
that animals are conscious of pain at all; so
treating them like humans would be futile and
costly. You can develop your own point by
anticipating this objection, and then
responding critically to it. For example, you
could reply that just because we cannot know
that animals are conscious of pain, we can’t
just dismiss the possibility because of that.
That would constitute the so-called ‘argument