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

70 SMART THINKING: SKILLS FOR CRITICAL UNDERSTANDING & WRITING

Effective use of dependent premises

Dependent premises providing one reason

A reason for a conclusion is very unlikely to consist in a single claim. No matter
how we might state it in short-hand, it is, analytically, a complex interaction of
many ideas and implications. The reason must be broken down into a chain of
more precise premises. For example, the claim that 'university education should be
free for all Australians' might be supported by the reason that 'the economy bene-
fits from a well-educated Australian population'. But is our analysis of the situation
clearly expressed in just one statement? Hardly. The conclusion is about universi-
ties and free education, while the reason introduces some new ideas: economic
benefit and a well-educated population. While the link between these two ideas and
the conclusion might seem obvious, the purpose of reasoning is to avoid assuming
the 'obvious' by carefully working through the connections between the various
ideas in the initial statement of our reason.
Here is how we might do it:

1. University education should be free for all Australians.


2. A well-educated population is more productive at work.


3. Higher productivity at work benefits the economy.


4. If something benefits the economy, then the government should
   encourage it.


5. The best way for the government to encourage Australians to be well
   educated is to provide free university education.


6. In our complex technological society, one requires university study in
   order to be well educated.

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Now turning one reason—'the economy benefits from a well-educated
Australian population'—into five separate premises does not provide any addi-
tional, different reasons. Rather, we have 'unpacked' some of the hidden aspects
and implications of one reason and shown how they relate to one another.^1 For
example, in the initial reason 'well-educated' is not defined. There are many
different opinions on what constitutes such an education, and claim 6, a definition,