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4
STUDIO
• The assumptions
provide the link between the evidence and the conclusion as long
as they are true. Assumptions are not stated but are deemed to ‘go without saying’;
in other words, proof is not given, so you have to read between the lines.
1.1.3
•
Reasoning
• Deductive:
the conclusion is deduced from generally accepted facts and a minor
premise. For example: all planets orbit the sun; Mars is a planet so Mars must orbit
the sun.
• Inductive
(most arguments): the conclusion is drawn from minor premises (ie
in-
ferred
from observation and patterns) that are believed to support the general case
of something (eg a theory) but do not provide
conclusive
proof; for example, Mars
moves around the sun and the earth moves around the sun so the sun is at the
centre of all the planets (
probable
). There are three key possibilities: the conclusion
is true with true premises and sound (valid) reasoning; the conclusion is false with
sound reasoning (but false premises); the conclusion is false with true premises
(but unsound reasoning).
In the verbal reasoning questions you have to be able to:
• practise reading the text
quickly
and
efficiently
: when you read the text for the first
time, you have to identify the different topics of which it talks about with a method
that consists in “scanning” it;
• focus
on the text and
ignore
what you know about the argument through other
means: some texts may deal with issues with which you are familiar or may report
facts or assumptions that contradict information commonly known about. Remem-
ber that the text must be the only source of information that you must consider;
• learn to interpret
keywords
that have a great probability of influencing the answers:
both the text and the questions may contain phrases or elements (such as “may”,
“might”, “can”, “cannot”; “only”, “the most”, “the least”, “commonly”, “frequently”,
“many”, “unlikely”, “impossible”, “average”) which can be read quickly and help
you giving the right answer;
• practise the key logic
rules
: rule 1: if A
→
B, non-B
→
non-A; rule 2: if A
→
, non-A
does not always imply non-B;
• distinguish
causation
and
link
: the text may present facts apparently related or really
linked to each other, but they cannot necessarily have a direct “cause and effect” re-
lationship. Be careful not to let you confuse by ambiguous statements which appear
to have a link but don’t really have.
1.2
•
Understanding argument 2: flaws; types of questions
These are errors in arguments leading to misleading or unsafe conclusions:
• Confusing correlation with causation. For example, death rates are higher in can-
cer patients receiving complementary therapies, so complementary therapies must