Now Little Johnny is ready to move on to the meat of evaluating reason - step four: evaluate whether the premise provides reasonable support for the conclusion. There are two routes normally taken in this evaluation, inductive and deductive validity. Inductive validity asks us to come up with a reasonable answer from the premise given and evaluate if this is in line with our conclusion. Put another way, it is improbable for a premise to be true and the conclusion to be false. However, it is possible, just unlikely, that with the true premise, the conclusion is false. So inductive validity requires our best guess as to what is likely the outcome from our premise, leading to our conclusion.
Here is an example. Premise: the Earth has been revolving around the sun for millions of years. Conclusion: the Earth will revolve around the sun tomorrow.
From the information given, we can reasonably induce that what has been consistent for millions of years will continue to be consistent tomorrow. However, there is a chance, no matter how small, that the Earth will get upset with the sun and choose to flee to another galaxy for a more stable relationship with a more gentle, caring, loving star. There isn't a huge chance that this is going to happen, but we can't completely rule it out, right?
Deductive validity states that it is impossible for the conclusion to be true if the premise is false. In other words, if the premise cannot stand on its own, the conclusion has no chance of being true. In Little Johnny's case, if one's underwear cannot stay clean following an accident, it cannot be true the doctors would assume Little Johnny's soiled pants are from his overall hygiene as opposed to being mauled by a lion on the way to school.
Little Johnny might begin by searching the Internet or looking for journal articles that discuss the cleanliness of underwear following traumatic events that lead to a hospital stay - like kids fainting when their friends prank them by dressing up as a big angry bear and chasing them down the street. Little Johnny can examine events he has experienced or observed.
Finally, Little Johnny must decide if the premise is correct - number five, evaluate if the premise is true or false. Be sure to back up your conclusion using data you derived from deductive reasoning or an explanation of the approach you utilized with inductive reasoning. Little Johnny will need to be able to explain how he came to his final conclusion.
If the premise is true and a good predictor of the stated conclusion, Little Johnny can accept the conclusion. If our premise is false, Little Johnny must reject the conclusion. If our premise is true but not a good predictor of the conclusion, Little Johnny again must reject the conclusion under the premise. The conclusion might be true, but there is no premise by which we can test it within the argument presented, thus the need to reject.
Lesson Summary
Oftentimes we will read information where we need to evaluate the reasoning behind it. We do that by looking at the argument presented and finding both the conclusion and the stated premise as well as any implied premise. We evaluate the premise using a combination of inductive and deductive validity testing or reasoning. Finally, we evaluate whether or not the premise is true based on our reasoned research. If the premise is true and a good predictor of the stated conclusion, we can accept the conclusion. If our premise is false, we must reject the conclusion. If our premise is true but not a good predictor of the conclusion, again we must reject the conclusion under the premise. Let us wish Little Johnny good luck.