-- 06-- Assumptions - Reasoning

--06-- Assumptions

TFY C5, Assumptions: What's Taken for Granted? TPCT Ch. 4: Reasons for Belief and Doubt TPCT Ch. 5: Fallacies and Persuaders

TFY C5, Assumptions: What's Taken for Granted?

PCT Ch. 4: Reasons for Belief and Doubt -- Videos

PCT Ch. 5. Fallacies and Persuaders -- Videos

Video:  Assumptions Video -2m Intro

 Assumptions / Inference Ladder Video

• Assumption -- Identify Hidden

• Assumptions and Inferences

Chapter Summary

Chapter Five Assumptions

This chapter concerns another familiar word, assumptions, demonstrating some surprising complexities in the term. Multiple exercises will show you how assumptions relate to facts and inferences, how they affect thinking, how they affect arguments, and how they might be exposed and clarified. You can choose to write an expository essay on assumption recognition and its role in creative problem solving. A reading by John Bul Dau points out some American cultural assumptions, while Kate Chopin and George Wallace show us the tragic consequences of assumptions of racial superiority. The critical thinker Will Allen shows us how creative problem solving results from spotting and challenging assumptions.

Glossary
Chapter 5
Accommodation	Accommodation occurs when, through thinking, we create new mental files or modify old ones to contain new experiences.
Assimilation	Assimilation is to succeed easily in filing new experiences into existing mental categories.
Assumption Layers	Assumption layers can appear beneath simple assertions. Such layers consist of multiple hidden and unexamined assumptions influenced in turn by one or more value assumptions beneath the whole.
Disequilibrium	The confusion and discomfort felt when a new experience cannot be aligned with previous experience or filed into existing mental categories.
Exposition essay	An essay designed primarily to explain something. Here facts are more important than opinions.
Hidden Assumption	A hidden assumption is an unclear and unstated idea assumed to be true that is integral to a line of reasoning. In an argument, it is a hidden premise that cannot be easily examined for truth and validity. Blind acceptance of a hidden premise can lead to the acceptance of a false or invalid conclusion.
Incongruity	Something that seems out of place or inappropriate.
Thesis	A thesis is a short summary statement of an idea that an essay intends to prove. It is also called the thesis statement and controlling idea.n
Value or Belief Assumption	Value assumption is a belief that we take for granted, one that rarely questioned or even articulated. Remaining hidden and unexpressed, a value assumption can nevertheless shape a chain of reasoning.
Working Assumption	A working assumption is a trial idea, theory, strategy, or hypothesis assumed to be true in order to further an investigation. It is a conscious assumption PCT5e-S-C04-Reasons for Belief and Doubt PCT5e-S-C05-Fallacies and Persuaders