Commentator: If a political administration is both economically successful and successful at protecting individual li...

rcantoral95 on March 16, 2019

Hello, I'd also like to know the answer to the below question. Can someone please answer? In fact, it would've been great to introduce a brief definition of (1) premise, (2) general principle, (3) subsidiary conclusion, and (4) Main conclusion, since those terms were the very foundation of the lesson. Thanks.

Jacob-R on March 17, 2019

Good questions — I’ll try to help.

A premise is basically a statement, something that the argument is just asserting as true or not true. It is almost always going to sound just like a fact.

Example: The sky is blue.

A general principle is just a general rule. That rule can be applied to other facts to reach some conclusion. Principles typically function as premises in an argument, so you don’t need to worry all too much about the difference — although a principle can sometimes be used in combination with other premises in a way other premises cannot.

Example: Planets in the XYZ solar system have blue skies.

(If we have another premise that Planet G is in the XYZ solar system, you can apply the general principle and reach the conclusion that Planet G has blue skies!)

A subsidiary conclusion is a conclusion besides the main conclusion. The subsidiary conclusion often supports that main conclusion.

Example: Premise 1: If no recorded typhoons in a given month, then impossible for a typhoon to form in that month in the future.
Premise 2: No typhoons have ever been recorded during February.
Subsidiary conclusion: Tomorrow is February 1, so there will not be a typhoon for the next month.
Main conclusion: therefore, we can take a boat trip in the next month.

The main conclusion is always the conclusion that everything else in the argument leads up to. This can sometimes be tricky when there is also a subsidiary conclusion, but most passages will just have one conclusion — that is the main one! I hope that helps.

Please let us know if you have further questions!

hales on June 18, 2019

In explaining question four it is mentioned that subsidiary conclusions are also considered to be premises... I am a bit confused by this. They are considered both premises AND subsidiary conclusions?

Victoria on June 18, 2019

Hello @hales,

A subsidiary conclusion can be considered to be a premise in that it helps to support the main conclusion. However, it can also be considered to be a conclusion in and of itself.

For the sake of ease, let's use the example provided above in Jacob's explanation.

Premise 1: If no recorded typhoons in a given month, then impossible for a typhoon to form in that month in the future.

Premise 2: No typhoons have ever been recorded during February.

Subsidiary Conclusion: Tomorrow is February 1, so there will not be a typhoon for the next month.

Main Conclusion: Therefore, we can take a boat trip in the next month.

We can see that the subsidiary conclusion is.a conclusion in that it is drawn using the support of both the premises. If the main conclusion was not included, the subsidiary conclusion would be able to stand alone as the main conclusion of the passage.

However, because there is a main conclusion, the subsidiary conclusion can also be considered to be a premise. If we do not take the subsidiary conclusion as a premise, we can see that we can no longer draw our main conclusion. The subsidiary conclusion provides us with the essential information that there will not be a typhoon for the next month because tomorrow is February 1 and no typhoons have been recorded in February which means that it is impossible for a typhoon to form in February. If we do not have the information that tomorrow is February 1, we cannot conclude that it is safe to take a boat trip in the next month.

In this way, a subsidiary conclusion can be considered to be both a premise and a conclusion in and of itself.

Hope this is helpful! Please let us know if you have any further questions.

hales on June 19, 2019

This is a fantastic explanation. Thank you!