Critical Thinking

Instructor: K. Sherlock

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WARRANTS
[ CLAIM a conclusion or opinion indicating fact, value or policy 6	9 WARRANT Generalized, hypothetical statements, which can act as bridges and allow one to draw conclusions or make claims; they guarantee or justify the likely veracity of the claim by creating a bridge between the claim and its support.		7SUPPORT Any material that serves to prove an issue or claim; a premise used in a deductive argument's conclusion. 5
QUALIFIER A restriction placed on the claim to state that it may not always be true as stated (e.g.: some; not all; many; often; most).	RESERVATION5 A restriction placed on the warrant to indicate that unless certain conditions are met, the warrant may not establish a connection between the support and the claim.	5 BACKING Assurances upon which a warrant or assumption is based.		FACTUAL EVIDENCEa examples, illustrations and cases; statistics and data OPINIONSa extrapolations and interpretations of facts; expert opinion

TYPES OF WARRANTS
MOTIVATIONAL	Needs: the immediate or long-term needs of the arguer or the audience creates a bias or motivation that gives the claim greater veracity			Values: the preexisting political, cultural or personal ideologies about good and bad, right and wrong, influence the seeming correctness of the claim.
	Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs physical needs safety belonging and love esteem self-actualization
AUTHORITY	Credibility: the knowledge of the arguer or her cited sources creates an impression of reliability that sways the audience to believe the truthfulness of the claim.			Trust: the honesty and integrity of the arguer or her cited sources creates a trust that encourages the audience to put its faith in the correctness of the claim.
SUBSTANTIVE	Generalization	Sign	Cause and Effect		Comparison	Analogy
	assumes an example or series of examples leads to a general principle or truth	assumes an observable datum indicates or "sign"ifies a condition	implies that one causal condition brings about another		characteristics and circumstances in two or more cases that prove what is true in one case ought to be true in another; comparable things belonging to the same class	an assumption that a resemblance in some characteristics between dissimilar things leads to a reliable claim about one of the claims

The following examples are taken from:

Armstrong, Rhonda. "Warrants." Penn State University. http://www.personal.psu.edu/staff/r/a/raj10/warrants.htm (23 June 2002).

SAMPLE MOTIVATIONAL WARRANT
Claim	Support	Warrant	Critical Questions
Americans should cut back on work to spend more time with their families.	Americans spend more hours than they used to on the job.  Parents depend more and more on outside caregivers.	Family time is a priority over work.	Might some people disagree with the author's values? Are the values relevant to the claim being made?

SAMPLE AUTHORITY WARRANT
Claim	Support	Warrant	Critical Questions
Cigarettes are dangerous to one's health.	The Surgeon General has issued warnings about the damage smoking does to adult lungs and heart, and to developing babies.	The surgeon general is reliable as a medical authority.	Is the authority credible on this subject? Could the authority be mistaken in this case? Do other reputable sources disagree?

SUBSTANTIVE WARRANTS

SAMPLE GENERALIZATION WARRANT
Claim	Support	Warrant	Critical Questions
The gender of a baby can be determined before its birth by the dangling of the mother's wedding band over her womb: if the ring spins clockwise, it's a boy; counterclockwise, it's a girl.	Both of my sisters tried this, and the ring successfully predicted the gender of their babies.	What is true in these two cases will be true for other pregnant women.	Are the examples representative of the whole group being described? Have contradictory examples been ignored?

SAMPLE SIGN WARRANT
Claim	Support	Warrant	Critical Questions
The war on drugs has failed.	Prisons are full of petty drug offenders, and drug use among teenagers continues to rise.	These examples are indicative of overall failure of the policy.	Is the sign sufficient? Do other indicators dispute the sign?

SAMPLE CAUSE-EFFECT WARRANT
Claim	Support	Warrant	Critical Questions
The increased use of SRTEs to evaluate professors has led to widespread grade inflation.	Professors are pressured to give inflated grades to appease the students who will later evaluate them.	Professors will change their grading practices if they can hope for reciprocity in high SRTE scores.	Is the cited cause sufficient to bring about the effect? Have other possible causes been overlooked?

SAMPLE COMPARISON WARRANT
Claim	Support	Warrant	Critical Questions
The United States should institute state-run health care systems.	Such a policy has enabled Canada and several European countries to provide affordable health care for their citizens.	What works in these countries will also work in the United States.	Are the dissimilarities between the things being compared greater than the similarities? Have all or only a few of the important characteristics been compared?

SAMPLE ANALOGY WARRANT
Claim	Support	Warrant	Critical Questions
The state religion of the United States is democratic government (Richey and Jones).	Americans' faith in democracy includes saints, priests, ritual sacraments, and temples.	The faith in and practice of democracy is analogous to the faith in and practice of a religion.	Is the analogy explanatory or merely descriptive? Are there sufficient similarities between the two elements to make the analogy appropriate?