Asking the Right Questions, A Guide to Critical Thinking, 8th Ed

What Reasonable Conclusions Are Possible? 189
to believe your job is done after you've made your list. But remember that some
conclusions can be better justified than others, and the most believable ones
should be the ones that most affect your reaction to the author's reasoning.
Indeed, one clever way to weaken strong reasoning about global warming or
the cause of the war in Iraq or the wisdom of distance learning is to make the
claim that experts disagree.
The implication of such a statement is that once disagreement is identified,
one argument is as good as the next. Therefore, there is no basis for new
action to address the problem. But such an approach is insulting to careful
critical thinking. Critical thinkers have standards of careful reasoning that
they can apply to identify the strongest reasoning.
Summary
Very rarely do reasons mean just one thing. After evaluating a set of reasons,
you still must decide what conclusion is most consistent with the best reasons
in the controversy. To avoid dichotomous thinking in your search for the
strongest conclusion, provide alternative contexts for the conclusions through
the use of when, where, and why questions.
Qualifications for conclusions will move you away from dichotomous
thinking. If-clauses provide a technique for expressing these qualifications.
For instance, let's take another look at the argument for restricting advertisements
aimed at children at the beginning of the chapter. What alternative
conclusions might be consistent with the reasons given?
AUTHOR'S CONCLUSION: Advertisements aimed at children should be illegal.
ALTERNATIVE CONCLUSIONS: 1. If corporations are to be treated as persons, then they
have a right to free speech that includes advertisements;
thus, their right to advertise should not be
limited.
2. If it can be demonstrated that children are unable to
assess what they view, and thus are heavily influenced
by the advertisements they see, then advertisements
aimed at children should be illegal.
3. If the purpose of the proposed legislation is to limit the
content of advertisements aimed at children, then the
government should not make such ads illegal, but
rather take a more proactive role in regulating the
content of advertisements aimed at children.