IDENTIFYING REASONS

We use reasons in a number of ways, for example to support conclusions of arguments, to
support recommendations, to explain why something has happened, or why someone has
acted in a particular way. This section focuses on the use of reasons to support conclusions
of arguments.
If we have identified a conclusion of an argument which has no argument indicator words,
then it is likely that we will already have some idea as to what the reasons of the argument
are, since in order to identify the conclusion, we will have had to assess which parts of the
passage could be taken to give support to the chosen conclusion – hence which parts are
the reasons. This is what you were doing when you worked through Exercise 1. But if we
identify the conclusion by the presence of argument indicator words, then we will have to
look again at the passage in order to identify the reasons.
Sometimes we will find characteristic words which indicate the presence of reasons, e.g.
‘because’, ‘for’, ‘since’. For example, our earlier argument about Falstaff could have read as
follows:
People who diet lose weight. Since Falstaff hasn’t lost weight, he cannot have dieted.
In this example, the word ‘Since’ signals that ‘Falstaff hasn’t lost weight’ is being offered as
a reason for the conclusion that Falstaff cannot have dieted. Sometimes a phrase will be
used which tells us explicitly that a reason is being offered, a phrase such as ‘the reason for
this is’; and sometimes reasons are listed, introduced by the words ‘first . . . second . . . (and
so on)’.
Arguments often use hypothetical or conditional statements as reasons. These are statements
which begin with ‘If’ and which say that something is true, or will be true, or will
happen, provided that (on the condition that) something else is true or something else
occurs – for example, ‘If I read without wearing my glasses, I will get a headache’. When
you see a sentence beginning with the word ‘If’, think about whether this is being offered
as one of the reasons for a conclusion. It is important to remember that it is the whole
statement which is being presented as a reason. You should not attempt to break the
statement down into two reasons. Sometimes an argument has a hypothetical statement
for a conclusion, so you cannot just assume that any hypothetical statement is being
offered as a reason.
In common with ‘conclusion indicator’ words, these ‘reason indicator’ words can be used
in ways other than to introduce a reason, so their presence cannot guarantee that a reason
is being offered – but it can be a useful clue. Sometimes, however, we will find no such
words or phrases, and will have to rely on our understanding of the meaning of the passage.
It may be useful to ask yourself, ‘What kind of reason would I have to produce in order to
provide support for this conclusion?’ You should then look in the passage to see if such
reasons are offered.
In addition to the hypothetical statements already mentioned, many different kinds of
statements can function as reasons. They may be items of common knowledge, general
principles, reports of the results of experiments, statistics, and so on. What they have in
common is that they are put forward as being true. Not all the reasons offered in an
argument can be given support within that argument. That is to say, that arguments have
to start somewhere, so every argument must offer at least one basic reason for which no
support is offered. Thus those who present arguments will often take as a starting point
something which is obviously true, or the truth of which can easily be checked by others.
However, this is not always the case. People may present something which is contentious
as a basic reason, and they may fail to give support for such a statement precisely in order
to conceal the contentious nature of their argument. So the evaluation of reasoning, which
will be discussed in the next chapter, will require us to consider whether the basic reasons
presented in any argument are true.