As we saw in Chapter 12, a conclusion is a judgment made after thinking (It may be carefully or hastily formed.) We reach conclusions through reasoning. An assumption, on the other hand, is an idea we have in mind without having thought about it. It is not arrived at by reasoning but merely taken for granted.
It is natural to make assumptions. Every day we make hundreds of them. Students walking across campus to class assume that the building is open, that the teacher is still alive and sufficiently motivated to be there, that their watches are accurate in indicating that it is time for class, and that going to class will help them learn the subject (or at least not hinder them from learning it). Without assumptions we would have to ponder every word we utter, every move we make every single moment of every day. Obviously that would represent an enormous output of energy. The net effect would be to increase our fatigue to an intolerable level and to hinder progress.
Fortunately, many of the assumptions we make are warranted. That is, they are justified in the particular circumstances. In the case of the students walking to class, probably every one of the assumptions they make is warranted. The experience of walking to class day after day and finding the building open and the teacher there with a helpful lecture to deliver has made those assumptions reasonable. In fact, even on the first day of class those assumptions would undoubtedly be warranted if the school were accredited and had published a schedule saying that class would be held at that time. (In that case the justification to assume would not be quite so strong as later in the semester, but the assumptions would still be warranted.)
But what if something unexpected happened? If the class were at 8:00 A.M., the custodian may have neglected to open the door to the building. Or the teacher may have become ill that morning and stayed home. Would that make the students' assumptions that the building would be open and the teacher there unwarranted? No. in such cases we would say that the students were justified in assuming that those things would happen, but they just did not happen. What makes an assumption unwarranted is taking too much for granted. For example, if the students had heard on the previous evening's news that the teacher had just been seriously injured in an automobile accident, it would be unwarranted for them to assume he would be in class the next day.
ASSUMPTIONS REFLECT OUTLOOK
All the assumptions discussed so far have concerned relatively routine matters. Yet the network of assumptions people make goes far beyond the routine. It is intimately bound up with their outlook on a large and diverse number of subjects. People may assume that the elected officials of their city, state, and nation are honest and work for the interests of their constituents. Or they may assume the reverse. They may go to the polls each November confident that their vote matters, or they may stay at home on the assumption that it does not. When a world crisis develops that involves the nation (the outbreak of armed conflict is the most dramatic example), people may assume that their country is entirely in the right, or that it is entirely in the wrong, or that some fault lies on each side.
Many people take it for granted that the teachers in their local schools are adequately trained in the subjects they teach, have carefully and fairly worked out their grading systems, and have painstakingly developed meaningful lessons. They may also assume that the school's administrators are aware of what is happening in the various classrooms, have developed precise methods of evaluating faculty performance, and are applying those methods to identify the most and least effective performances. Others, of course, assume exactly the opposite.
Most people hold similar assumptions about other areas of endeavor: about medicine, law, and other professions, about industry, about small and large businesses, about the numerous organizations found in society. And their general assumptions usually govern their particular ones. The person who assumes that all doctors are quacks will be inclined to assume that the particular doctors she visits is also a quack.
Which of those assumptions are warranted? Those for which the person ahs sufficient experience that supports that assumption better than any other one. What is "sufficient" depends on the situation; the more general and sweeping the assumption, the more experience would be needed. Unfortunately, it is very easy to take too much for granted, to assume something with little or no experience or for which the experience leads equally well to an entirely different view.
POPULAR UNWARRANTED ASSUMPTIONS
Many viewers of the Dracula movies assume the main character was purely a fiction. They do so casually, with little or no warrant. The assumption is unwarranted, for there could easily have been a real-life villain that the horrible movie Dracula was patterned after. In fact, there was one. His name was Vlad Tepes, nicknamed "Draculya." Tepes was a fifteenth-century Rumanian nobleman who ruled so cruelly that peasants of the time regarded him as a human vampire. Though he never bit people's necks and drank their blood, he once invited the poor and sick people of his domain to a large feast and then set fire to the banquet hall. Another time a Turkish ambassador and his party nailed to their heads. Certainly his most horrible deed was to have the heads of twenty thousand of his victims cut off and mounted on stakes for display.[ Seth S. Goldschlager, "There Was a Real Count Dracula and He Was Not a Good Old Boy," New York Times, August 27, 1972, Sec. 10, p.9.]
For decades many Americans assumed that China was a medically backward country. The basis of their assumption was little more than the more general assumption that the Chinese were socially backward. Because China was closed to Westerners, no substantial evidence was obtainable to support any assumption about Chinese medicine. So no assumption was warranted. (Since the early 1970s, when visitors were permitted in China, reports have suggested not only that their health care is quite advanced but that in general it is better for he average person than what is available in the Untied States.)[ "Visitors Say China Delivers Better Health Care Than U.S.," Binghamton Press, July 16, 1972, p.5D.]
Similarly, the traditional assumption of white and black America about American Indian medicine men has been that they are charlatans, dispensing superstition that certainly can't help anyone who is really sick. This assumption is not based on any knowledge but merely on a generally derogatory view of the American Indian. Only in the past decade or two have many people begun to learn the value of the medicine man's treatment. The National institute of Mental Health, for example, established a scholarship program to help Navajo Indians study "curing ceremonials" under tribal medicine men. One of the supporters of this program, psychiatrist Robert Bergman, Knows a medicine man who "apparently cured a psychotic woman after a modern psychiatric hospital had failed to help her."[ "Navajo Psychotherapy," Time, June 17, 1972, p.68.]
When the sexual liberation movement was launched in modern America, it was rather widely assumed that sexually promiscuous people are more emotionally healthy and stable than their "straight" neighbors; in other words, that the former do not need the crutch of traditional morality but can choose their behavior freely and independently. Actually, though supported by the existence of sexually oriented magazines, books, and films and by the mood of the time that sexual "rules" are narrow and restricting, there was no evidence linking promiscuity to emotional health. The assumption was probably grounded more in wishful thinking or acceptance of others' wishful thinking than any experience or evidence. In other words, it was unwarranted. (At least one study suggests that sexual promiscuity is the reverse of what was assumed: not a sign of strength but of deficiency. Dr. I. Emery Breitner claims the eighty-eight promiscuous people he studied were lonely people looking for companionship and approval and using sex as the means to find it. He terms them "love addicts.")[ "'Love Addicts'," Parade, April 1, 1973, p.9.]
One of the most common unwarranted assumptions is that the present European and American concept of childhood has always existed. Europeans and Americans' only reason for taking it for granted is that they have been familiar with that concept since their own earliest years. That, of course, is not sufficient reason. Naturally the concept is familiar to them. But they have not experienced living and thinking in 3000 B.C. or in A.D. 1500, so they have no warrant to assume that people in those times shared all our concepts and values. Indeed, the barest contact with history give ample suggestions that concepts and values change.
Was our concept of childhood shared by our ancestors back to the beginning of humanity? No. on the contrary, it is a relatively recent idea, dating back only a few centuries. Before that children were not considered to be different from adults in their nature and needs. As painting and sculpture of various times reveal, children were thought of as little adults.[ J. H. Plumb, "The Great Change in Children," Horizon, Winter 1971, pp.4-12.]
Very likely much of the tension between young people and their parents could be eliminated by a clearer understanding of how dramatically attitudes toward children have changed. As in so many situation however, such understanding can be reached only when the prevailing assumption is recognized and found unwarranted.
RECOGNIZING UNWARRANTED ASSUMPTIONS
It is not too difficult to evaluate an assumption and decide whether or not it is warranted. The real difficulty is in identifying it in the first place. The reason for this is that, unlike the other problems in thinking we have discussed, assumptions are usually unexpressed. To recognize the assumptions in your thinking and the thinking of others, develop the habit of reading (and listening) between the lines. In other words, become sensitive to those ideas that are not stated but are nevertheless clearly implied. Consider this dialog:
Cloris: I really don't understand why people make such a fuss about violence in films. Mavis: they say that violent films harm viewers. Cloris: That's silly. I've watched them all my life, and I've never done anything violent.
Cloris reasons that if she has watched violent films all her life yet hasn't done anything violent, violence in films can't be harmful. That reasoning reveals two assumptions Cloris may be unaware of. The first is that the only conceivable way for film violence to harm people is by making them violent. Is that assumption warranted? No. there is another way that film violence could conceivably do harm: by making people insensitive to others' pain and complacent about violence in real life. The second assumption is that Cloris's experience is necessarily typical. This assumption is also unwarranted because, unlike Cloris, others may have been led to violence by viewing film violence.
APPLICATIONS
1.Examine each of the following dialogues. Identify any assumptions made by the speakers. Be precise. If possible, decide whether the assumptions are warranted. a.Olaf: Did you hear the good news? School may not open on schedule this year. Olga: How come? Olaf: The teachers may be on strike. Olga: Strike? This ridiculous, They're already making good money. b.Janice: What movie is on at the theater tonight? Mike: I don't know the title. It's something about lesbians. Do you want to go? Janice: No thanks. I'll wait for a quality film. c.Boris: Boy, talk about unfair markers. Nelson's the worst. Bridget: Why? What did he do? Boris: What did he do? He gave me a D – on the midterm, that's all – after I spent twelve straight hours studying for it. I may just make an appointment to see the dean about him. d.Mr. Smith: The Harrisons are having martial problems. I'll bet they'll be separating soon. Mr. Jones: How do you know? Mrs. Smith: I heard it at the supermarket. Helen told Gail and Gail told me. Mr. Jones: I knew it wouldn't work out. Jeb Harrison is such a blah person. I can't blame Ruth for wanting to leave him. 2.Apply your critical thinking to the following cases. Be sure to identify all your assumptions and decide whether they are warranted. a.During his presidency, Ronald Reagan formally proposed a constitutional amendment permitting prayer in the public schools, arguing that it was time to "restore the simple freedom of our citizens to offer prayer in public schools and institutions. "The amendment was worded as follows: "Nothing in this Constitution shall be construed to prohibit individual or group prayer in public schools or other pubic institutions. No person shall be required by the United States or by any state to participate in prayer."[ "Reagan Proposes Prayer Amendment," The (Oneonta) Star, May 18, 1982, p.2.] Do you endorse this amendment? b.A Cambridge, Massachusetts, man got tired of looking at his neighbor's uncut lawn and untrimmed shrubs, which reached above the second-story window, and took his grievance to court. The neighbor admitted to the judge that he hadn't cut the lawn in fourteen years, but he argued that he preferred a natural lawn to a manicured one and untrimmed to trimmed shrubs. The judge decided he was perfectly within his legal rights in leaving his lawn and shrubs uncut, regardless of what his neighbor felt.[ "Liberation Lawn," New York Times, Many 23, 1982, Sec.4, p.11.] c.Should parents who feel their college-age sons and daughters are being brainwashed by religious cults be allowed to kidnap their children and have them deprogrammed? d.Should parents be allowed to keep their children out of school if they believe they can educate them better at home? e.Many motorcyclists object to the laws of some states that require them and their passengers to wear helmets. They believe they should be free to decide for themselves whether to wear a helmet. Do you agree? 3.Group discussion exercise: Discuss one of the cases in application 2 with two or three of your classmates. Try to reach consensus on the issue, taking care to avoid unwarranted assumptions. Be prepared to present your group's view (or the individual views) to the class.