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

182 GLOSSARY OF KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS

reason

Used loosely, tliis term describes the information that supports or explains a particular

conclusion. As used in this book, a 'reason is an initial statement of why a particular

conclusion is acceptable—a reason that must then be 'unpacked' or expanded into a

chain of premises in order to give appropriate depth to our reasoning. (See chapter 4.)

relativism

A short-hand term for the idea that knowledge is not to be judged 'true or false' by
comparing it to the real world, but instead by reference to the humans who hold
that knowledge. Extreme relativism, in which 'everyone's opinion is as good as
anyone else's opinion' (subjective knowledge), is the opposite of the anti-relativist
position of objective knowledge. In neither case is the social aspect of reasoning
properly thought through. Smart thinking is primarily concerned with social rela-
tivism, in which knowledge is constructed intersubjectively. Compare with inter-
subjective and knowledge. (See chapter 9; see also chapter 1.)

relevance

Premises are relevant to a conclusion if they provide some basis on which to accept

that conclusion. We can say that, if true, a relevant premise makes the conclusion

more likely. Relevance is involved in reasoning in many ways. For example, appeals

to authority require the use of relevant authorities; reasoning from analogy requires

that comparisons be made between relevantly similar cases; reasoning from gener-

alisation requires that the relevance of the generalisation to the specific case be

established. Crucially, a framing premise is often used explicitly to establish just

how premises relate to a conclusion. (See chapter 6.)

scope

The extent or coverage of a claim; an important property in terms of writing well-
formed claims and assessing the degree of support necessary for a particular conclu-
sion. A conclusion and its premises are said to be 'coherent' in scope when there is
little variation in the way that the claims report the extent of their information. The
scope component of a claim is often implicit but, in good reasoning, should be
stated explicitly. Compare with certainty. (See chapter 2.)

self-evident claim

A self-evident claim is one that, relative to the audience and context in which it is
presented, requires no foundation or, literally, is so obviously acceptable that it
provides its own evidence of acceptability. What is self-evident for one group or
individual, or in one context, may not be self-evident in other situations. Compare
with well-founded claim. (See chapter 5.)

simple structure

An argument or explanation is said to be simple when it involves only two layers of
claims: the premises and the conclusion. No matter how many premises are offered,