IDENTIFYING PREMISES AND CONCLUSIONS

1. No one under eighteen-years-old can vote.

2. Jen is under eighteen-years-old.
3. Therefore, Jen cannot vote.

Arguments are composed of one or more premises and a conclusion. Premises are statements offered as
reasons for accepting another statement. A conclusion is a statement supported by reasons.

In this example, statements 1 and 2 are premises, and statement 3 is the conclusion.

Distinguishing premises from conclusions is a skill that requires both practice and close attention to
the nuances of language. Here are some tips that will help you separate premises from conclusions:
1. Look for premise indicators--words like because, since, for, and given that--that provide clues
when premises are being offered.
2. Look for conclusion indicators--words like therefore, thus, hence, and so--that provide clues
when conclusion indicators are being offered.
3. If the passage contains no indicator words, try these two strategies:
a. Ask yourself, "What claim is the writer or speaker trying to prove?" That claim will be the
conclusion.
b. Try putting the word "therefore" before each of the
statements in turn. The statement it fits best will be the conclusion.

Example:

A good society treasures its dissidents and mavericks because it needs the creative thinking
that produces new hypotheses, expanded means, a larger set of alternatives, and, in general,
the vigorous conversation induced by fresh ideas. (Nel Noddings, Philosophy of Education,
1995)
Premise: A good society needs the creative thinking that produces new hypotheses, expanded means,
a larger set of alternatives, and, in general, the vigorous conversation induced by fresh ideas.
Conclusion: A good society treasures its dissidents and mavericks.

Notice the word because in this passage. This tips us off that a premise is being offered.
Assignment: 1 whole sheet of yellow paper
Submit on September 9, 2019, 12PM

Identify the premise(s) and conclusion in each argument.

1. Since in American schools every child is unique and of equal worth with every other child, academic
competition, which subverts this egalitarian and individualist creed, must be discouraged. (Stated but
not endorsed in E.D. Hirsch, Jr., The Schools We Need and Why We Don’t Have Them, 1996)

2. Make a will. Otherwise, the state will determine who gets your stuff.
(Andrew Tobias, "Isn't It Time You Faced the Future?" 2001)
3. Research universities also must aggressively support teaching. After all, a significant percentage of
their students are undergraduates, and such institutions are clearly obligated to provide them a
quality education.
(Ernest L. Boyer, Scholarship Reconsidered, 1990)

4. The Jews and Arabs have been fighting for centuries and I seriously doubt this will ever be resolved.
The United States should get out of this never-ending fight, or the next terrorist bomb might be in
Washington--and it just might be nuclear.
(John G. Ferguson III, Letter to the Editor, USA Today, February 12, 2001)

5. No one who observes people can pretend that in fact they always seek anything like their own long-
run advantage. If this were the case only stupidity could explain how frequently and obviously they
act contrary to their own long-run advantage. People are not that stupid! (Charles Hartshorne and
Creighton Peden, Whitehead's View of Reality, 1981)

6. Many people yearn for a return to "religiousness" to education, so they press for laws permitting
vocal prayer in the classroom. But I cannot join them. Vocal prayer in class dictates a consensus that
does not exist in our pluralistic society, and any prayer that is so vaguely worded that it sounds
agreeable to all is, by my limits, no prayer at all.
(Parker J. Palmer, To Know As We Are Known: Education as a Spiritual Journey, 1993)
7. We have good reason to believe that people will exist in the future and that they will be similar
enough to us that we can have a good idea of what their well-being requires. Knowing this and
knowing that our present actions can influence their future well-being, it is reasonable to conclude
that future people must be given some ethical consideration by presently living human beings.
(Joseph R. DesJardins, Environmental Ethics: An Introduction to Environmental Philosophy, 3rd ed.,
2001)

8. With what group do I belong? I am with those who would be pleased to be refuted if I should say
anything that is not true, and pleased to be the refuter of anyone who should say anything that is not
true--more pleased, in fact, to be refuted than to refute. I think that's a greater good, you see, insofar
as it's a greater good to be relieved of a great evil than to relieve another of the same. (Socrates, in
Plato's Gorgias)