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

60 SMART THINKING: SKILLS FOR CRITICAL UNDERSTANDING & WRITING

e. I imagine that if another state or territory were to pass similar laws, then

media reporting of the legislation would be very extensive.

f. Some politicians argued that media reporting at the time of the

Northern Territory legislation encouraged some terminally ill people to

move there.

Well-founded claims

The problem of 'true' claims

A claim, whether it is a conclusion or a premise, has one essential property: that it

claims to be a true statement (either actual or possible—what is or what ought to

be). Hence, while claims must first be well formed, so that we can express this state

of affairs precisely, claims must also be well founded, so that their truth is not too

easily called into question. If I were to say, 'This book will totally change your life!',

you would probably not accept this claim, because as it stands, this claim is

unfounded (not based on believable intellectual foundations) and is thus of

doubtful truth.

The whole purpose of using reasoning is, in fact, to give foundations (via the

premises) for the conclusion, to show that it is acceptable, or to establish an accept-

able explanation of it. Obviously, then, the 'well-foundedness' of the premises

becomes equally (if not more) important than the well-foundedness of the con-

clusion. How can an audience assess our conclusion except by first considering the

premises? Indeed, for any claim to be well founded, whether it be conclusion or

premise, there must be some reason(s) for the audience accepting it. Every claim,

in this sense, must be treated as a conclusion in need of premises. Every argument

or explanation in which we use premises to prove a conclusion depends, therefore,

on other arguments or explanations, which establish those premises. We have seen

this situation in some of the examples in previous chapters, in which a conclusion

is reached only after a series of arguments (arranged in a complex structure) have

been developed.

Here is an example:

1. Australia is a good country in which to live.


2. Countries that permit freedom of religious expression are good places
   to live.


3. Australia permits freedom of religious expression.


4. Australia has no laws that forbid any religion.


5. The people who live in Australia let others practise their religions
   peacefully even if they do not agree with those religions.


6. If a country has no laws against individual religions and the people of
   that country do not object to any religious practices, then freedom of
   religious expression exists in that country.