- Tue Aug 04, 2015 3:50 pm
#19255
Hi LJack,
Thanks for the question. It may help to review the two major categories of assumption question (supporter and defender) in your Bible. More generally, a few tips:
1) Any argument containing an assumption is at least slightly logically flawed -- meaning that to be certain the conclusion would require information that isn't provided. This missing information is what the author is inviting you to assume, in order to make the conclusion more reliable. So it can help to ask yourself -- how would I attack this argument? Or what is its core weakness or flaw, as sometimes that will help you identify the assumption the author is making.
2) When I've read a stimulus and nothing is clearly striking me, I first check for supporter assumptions, both because they tend to show up slightly more frequently, and because it's often faster to look for them. To find a supporter, start by looking for a new concept in the conclusion which never actually showed up in the premises. If it's there, find a concept in the premises that it would need to be linked to -- in other words that we can assume are related or that mean the same thing. For instance, the premise might say that you help senior citizens across the street. The conclusion might not mention helping, but might mention "respect for elders". It's easy to miss that these two concepts do not actually mean the same thing, but one could be helping because there's payment, or out of pity rather than respect, or to look good, or to minimize traffic delays, rather than out of respect for those being helped. So the assumption being made is that a person who helps senior citizens respects elders. It seems likely, but it's not actually that certain, which is what makes it an assumption.
If you can't find an obvious supporter assumption, then it's time to look for defenders, Remember that a defender is essentially just neutralizing any weakness or flaw in the argument -- so there's not going to be such a straightforward starting place as with supporter assumptions -- the flaw or weakness could show up anywhere. The assumption is something which if true, negates or neutralizes the vulnerability or weakness in the argument. If nothing jumps out at you on reviewing the stimulus, turn to the answer choices, and as you review, ask yourself, does this fix a flaw in the argument? If for instance it were not true (review the "negate the assumption" technique in your bible), would it destroy or severely weaken the conclusion?
Hope this helps!
Beth
