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Premise, Conclusion and Conditional Indicators

Article  in  Informal Logic · January 2002

DOI: 10.22329/il.v22i2.2585

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 Premise, CQ1 lelusion and Condilionallndicalors TS 5

Premise, Conclusion and Conditional

Indicators
CLAUDE GRATTON
Department of Philosoph y
University of Nevada at Las Vegas
Las Vegas, NY 89154-5028 U.SA
[email protected]

One way to help improve stud ents' reasoning skills is to improve their understand-
ing and use of various groups of words that have important argumentative func-
tions, such as premise and concl usion ind icators, di scount express ions (e.g., 'but'.
;however'), guard ing (e.g., 'can', 'may') and assuring (e.g., 'necessaril y', 'evi-
dentl y') qualifiers, quantifiers (e.g., 'most', 'all ', 'some'), and conditional indica-
tors (e.g., 'only if, 'w hen'). The worksheets below have helped my students to
identify and use premise and conclusion indicators, and the various words that
express conditional statemen ts. Textbooks usually give only a short list of these
groups of words, and as a result students fail to realize the variety of expressions
that exist in the English language. My lists include more examples, but they are not
exnausti ve.
You will see that I have inchlded in each worksheet expressions that are not
premi se or conclusion indications, or conditional indicators. My goal is to help
st ud ents to be more li ngui sti cally alert, for they ca n easily fall into a mental rut with
these kinds of worksheets.
According to my experi ence, the most effective steps to fo llow when using
th ese worksheets is to do a few exam ples in class in ord er to make sure that all the
students understand how to do the exercises, secondly, have them work in small
groups on a portion of the worksheet, and third ly, go over that portion as a class.
Stud ents seem to learn better when we spend about fifteen minutes per class on a
few consecutive classes, than if we do every thi ng in a single class. Rather than
j ust have students give th eir answers, have th em also give examples of the applica-
ti on of these expressions. For this will help you to see how th ey are th inking, and
th us allow you to make co rrections at that deeper leve l rather than just at the leve l
of their outward performance; the variety of examples will make the activity more
interes ting, and faci litate th e transference of th ese ski lls to different contexts.
Of course, the successfu l completion of these worksheets is definitely not
sufficie nl to give students the maste ry they need. In order to reinforce their learn-
ing I assign a project in which they are supposed to hand in five argu ments' and

© Claude Gratton 2003

 TS 6 Claude Gratton

five causal explanations from their own readings (e,g" textbooks used in their
other courses, magazines, movies), diagram the reasoning (labeling each arrow in
a diagram as either an argument or a causal explanation, for some passages con·
tain both arguments and causal explanations), circle conclusion indicators, box in
premise indicators, underline conditional indicators, and use different parentheses
to identify discount expressions and qualifiers, If they get anything wrong in a
particular passage, they do not get their point, but they may submit a new passage,
and use my feedback to avoid repeating their mistake, Until the deadline, students
may submit any quantity of new examples at any time, This flexibility (mastery
learning) allows the slow learners to get the practice and feedback they need, and
to get a good grade, This project is usually worth ten percent, and many students
who start working on the project as soon as it assigned succeed in getting their ten
out of ten, This project will also give you a chance to accumulate examples of
arguments and causal explanations that you can latcr use in quizzes, tests, exams,
assignments, If any of your students are learning any other languages, suggest to
them to construct similar lists in the languages they are learning: this will help them
to reason more effectively in that language,

Premise & Conclusion Indicators

instructions: The purpose of this assignment is to help you to become aware of a
variety of words that have the important function of indicating whether statements
are used as reasons Or as conclusions. Let the letters "PH stand for a premisel
reason, and "e" for a conclusion. Insen these letters in the appropriate positions.
For example, the correct insertion of these letters in "_ therefore, _ " is
"L therefore ~". Since 'therefore' introduces a conclusion, it is a "conclusion
indicator". The correct insertion of these letter in "Since _ , _ " is "Since L,
~". As 'since' introduces a premise, it is a "premise indicator".

Note: (a) Not all of the following expressions are either premise or conclusion
indicators. Ifyou identify an expression that we typically do fl ot use as a premise or
a conclusion indicator, do not insert any letter, leave the expression blank. (b) If
you are going to use the same argument to determine the function of all or most of
these expressions, then you will sometimes have to rephrase your argument ,

I) _ , consequently, _ , 2) entails that

3) As shown by the fact that _ , _ ' 4) _ ' This' is shown by _ '
5) As_, _ 6) shows that
7) , From this we can deduce that 8) , However,
9) - , Accordingly, - ' 10) _ ' I conclude that _ '
II) _ ' From this it follows that _ ' 12) _ follows from _ '

I Impersonal pronouns sometimes refer to earlier statements.

 Premise, Conclusion and Conditional Indicators TS 7

13) _ . Moreover, _. 14) _ . That is prove n from _ .

15) _ . This proves that _ . 16) Granted that ~ _ .
17) _ . Furthermore, _ . 18) Supposing that _ , _ .
19) _ . Hence, _ . 20)_. For_.
21) _ . Then _ . [find exceptions] 22) _ because _ . [arg.lexpl.]
23) Because_ ,_ . [argumentslexplanations]24) _ . Nevertheless_.
25) _ . That is why _ . 26 This is why ---' _ .
27) _ . Here is why, _ . 28) Here is why _ , _ .
29) _ . Obviously _ . 30) _ . This being so, _ .
31) _ implies that_. 32) As indicated by ---' _ .
33) _ due to the reason that_. 34) On account of the reason that
- '-
35) Despite the fact that _ , _ . 36) _ . In view of that, _ .
37) In view of the fact that _ , _ . 38) _ . In addition, _ .
39) _ may be deduced from _ . 40) _ .One can deduce that_ .
41) _ may be inferred from _ . 42) _ . One may infer that_ .
43) _ . Al so _ . 44) _ , thereby showing that_ .
45) _ , thus, _ . [identify exceptions] 46) _ . Still, _ .
47) It can be derived from that 48) _ . That is derived from_.
49) _ . This bears out the point that _ . 50) _ . Besides,
51) _ establishes that _ . 52) _ j ustifir.s that_.
53) _ proves that_. 54) _ . Its proof is that_.
55) _ . This is proven from _ . 56) _ . Finally,_.
57) _ supports that _ . 58) _ is supported by _ .
59) In support of _ , consider _ . 60) _ lends credence to _ .
61) _ . Evidently, _ . 62) leads me to believe that

63) Inasmuch as _ , _ . 64) _ . As a result, _ .

65) On the hypothesis that ---' _ . 66) _ demonstrates that _ .
67) _ ind icates that _ . 68) _ signifies that _ .
69) _ guarantees that _ . 70) _ is based on _ .
71) On the basis of _ , _ . 72) _ . In that case, _ .
73) In light of the fact that _ , _ . 74) Even if _ , _ .
75) _ . You just need to consider that _ . 76) _ . But comes down to_.
77) _ . That makes me believe that _ . 78) _ . To say that is to say _. _.
79) _ . In conclusion, _ . [find exceptions]80) _ . This comes from _ .
TS 8 C laude Gratton

81) _ . That authorizes me to say that _ . 82) I' m convinced from _ , that

83) _ . This marshals in favor of_. 84) _ . For this reason, _ .

85) _ . On th is account, _ . 86) Seeing that _ , _ .

Identify or invent three other premise indicators.

Identify or invent three other conclusion indicators.

Conditional Statements
Instructions: The purpose of this assignment is \0 help you to become aware of a
variety of words that have the im portant function of expressing conditional state-
ments. Where are the sufficient condition [S] and the necessary condition [N]
located in the following conditional statements? Example: I. If ~ then _ _ .
Ans wer: If.2..- , then -lL.
Note: (1) These expressions are not always used in the same way by everyone.
(2).If an expression is not typically lIsed to assert a conditional statement, then do
not insert any letter, leave the expression blank.

2. __ only if _ _. 3. Each time ~ _ _.

4. Whenever _ _, __ . 5. Every time _ _ , _ _ .
6. When ~ _ _ . 7. _ _ only when _ _ .
8. _ _ provided that _ _ . 9. _ _ only provided that _ _ .
10. No _ _ , unless __. II. Unless _ , there 's no
12. _ _ is necessary for _ _ . 13. Supposing that ~ _ _ .
14 . _ _ is required for _ _ . 15. _ _. supposing that _ _ .
16. _ _ is ind ispe nsable for _ _ . 17 . Assuming that _ _ , _ _ .
18. is needed for 19. _ _, assuming that _ _.
20. __, is requisite for __ . 2 1. Admitting that _ _, _ _ .
22. There must be _ _, for 23. _ _ , admitting that _ _.
24. _ _, inescapably _ _ . 25. Providing that _ _ __ .
26. _ _ . inevitably _ _ 27. _ _, providing that _ _.
28. Postulating _ _, _ _. 29. Positing _ _, _ _ .
30. Hypothesizing _ _ , _ _ . J I. Conjecturing _ _ , _ _.
32. Presuming that _ _, _ _ . 33. Vent uring that _ _ , _ _ .
34. _ _ presuppos es that _ _ . 35. Presupposing that _ _. _ _ .
36. In the case that _ _ . _ _ . 37. In the event that - - ' --
38. _ _ is enough for __ . 39. ___ is adequate for _ _.
 Elementary Logic from a ll Advanced Standpoint TS 9

40. _ _ is satisfactory for _ _ . 41. is suitable for

42. _ _ is ample for _ _ . 43 . _ _ is plenty fo r _ _.
44. As soon as _ _,_ _. 45. Once - ' -
46. Until_, there ' s no _ . 47. No _ , until _ .
48 . Without _ , there's no_. 49. No w ithout
50. In the eve nt that _ , _ . 5 1. . On these terms
52. on the condition that 53. _ only on the condition that _ .
54. _ only on the assumption that _ " 55. On the condition that - - , _.
56. Granting that _ , _ . 57. Granted that _ , _

Elementary Logic from an Advanced

Standpoint
MAURICE A. FINOCCHIARO
Departm ent of Philosophy
University of Nevada at Las Vegas
Las Vegas, NV 89 154-5028 U.S. A.
mauricc:[email protected]

l.lntroductioD

For the past 30 years I have taught a course entitled '-Logic.a l Theory," and here I
should like to briefly relate its origin and history, descri be its structure and content,
and explain its aim and rationale. The course is at the upper ~ di vis j o n leve l and has
for prerequisite anyone of th ree introd uctory logic courses in (I) reasoning and
critical thinking, (2) ev idence and inductive reasoning. or (3) formal, deductive, or
symbolic logic. Its catalogue description reads: "G eneral study of the nature of
argument; how it relates to reasoning, critici sm, deduction, logical form, induc-
tion, and pers uasion . Emphasizes both the systematic development of log ical con-
cepts and their application to actual arguments."
This course originated in part as my attempt to teach a course similar (mu -
tatis nlutcmd is) to a grad uate serninar I had taken in 1967 frorn Michael Scriven as
a gradu ate student at the Un ivers ity of Cal ifornia-Berkeley, which was my first
exposure to inforrnallogic and critical thinking. That mernorable course was enti-

© Maurice Finocchiaro 2003

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