to-do for ze internet!

get comm readings from ariane's fb post bio 22 lab skeletal Assumptions and Implications Assumptions If we shift our perspective a bit, we can discover another reason why re lationships like inclusion and equivalence are of importance to the writer. When the truth of Assertion A hinges on the truth of B, the writer always has the op tion of leaving B unstated, especially if B states common knowledge or a widely shared princiople. But B will lurk in the background as an assumption, even so. Statements of obligation, in particular, nearly always seem to lean on one or mo re assumptions. The statement "People in sedentary jobs should run a mile daily" probably assumes something like this: "Sedentary people should exercise," which in turn assumes that "exercise is good for sedentary people," and so on, back t o some central principle such as "Men sould maintain healthy bodies." Notice tha t the original assertion also has an assumption of another sort, namely that sed entary people can run a mile daily, a doubtful proposition at best. This assumpt ion is subject to the usual test of verifiability; the others ornot. This statem ent of obligation, therefore, is a compound of the testable and the nontestable, and most statements of obligation are of that kind. They are truly statements, or assertions (that is, they are true or false), but some part of them resists e mpirical verification and refers one to basic assumption which cannot be "tested " at all. The role that assumptions play in writing and reading extends far beyond statements of obligation. One way to describe assumptions would be to call them "what we take for granted" or "what we do not feel obliged to prove," or "what else must be true in order for this statement to be true." Certainly we "take fo r granted" fully as much... in our writing. Most of the time we do not even give a thought to the assumptions from which we begin; we simply assume that others make the same assumptions as we do. When we do have any cause to doubt agreement , we may make the assumption explicit ("Assuming that legislative programs are t o be judged by their enduring effects, the New ... was largely a failure"). But very often writers assume agreement when there may not be any; in fact, they mak e statements whose assumptions they neither have investigated nor would accept i f they were to do so. To write in ignorance of one's own assumptions is to write irresponsibly. The need to reckon with unstated assumptions does not usually arise with simple assertions like "Jefferson designed Monticello." When assertions are com bined causally, however, the unstated assertion may be fully as important as any assertion explicitly stated. Consider this sentence: Jefferson was an extensive landowner and was therefore interested in sec uring the independence of the American colonies from England. Underneath this sentence there is an unstated assumption to the effect t hat all landowners at that time and in that place were interested in securing in dependence of the colonies. And behind that assumption there may well be another , more general, to the effect that all landowners everywhere and at all times ar e interested in securing the independence from foreign control of the political territory in which they hold land. The criteria fro testing these assumptions ar e historical; if we apply such criteria, we shall have no difficulty in finding that the assumptions are false. We might say of the original statement about Jef ferson, then, that it is based on an unwarranted assumption. Such assumptions ar e a particular danger in expository writing, precisely because they remain behin

d the scenes; yet they deserve as much attention, both from the writer and from the reader, as explicit statements. Implications To talk about assumptions is to talk about the logical precedents of an assertion, about what must be true in order for that assertion to be true. Becau se it is a looking backward, a search for antecedent condition, the search for a ssumptions is not always easy; a particular statement may rest on many assumptio ns, each of which must be acknowledged if the writer is to feel secure about his statement. To appreciate the logical consequences, or implications, of an asser tion is to ask, "If this assertion is true, then what other assertions are neces sarily true? If, for instance, someone says that maple trees always shed their l eaves in winter and if he is able to demonstrate that the statement is true, the n it is perfectly obvious that a particular maple tree in your front yard will s hed its leaves when winter comes. The truth of the first assertion necessarily i mplies the truth of the second. This form of implication is the simplest of all, since the fact that a particular maple is part of the category of all maple tre es makes the implication unmistakably clear. In the ordinary course of reading and writing, however, implications do not appear so openly. Instead, they operate subtly, often by sudden or peculiar emphasis; sometimes juxtaposition produces them. In a recent political conventio n, one ... speaker praised by name all of the President's principal advisers, ex cept one, thereby implying by omission his disapproval or dislike of that one. H ad he gone through the list and then made a pointedly offhand addition of that o ne name to his list, he would have achieved the same implication by emphasis. Or had he dealth with each name in ascending order of value and coupled the one na me with others early in his list, in defiance of the man's actual status, he wou ld have implied by juxtaposition what he actually did imply by omission. The use of implication is not confined, of course, to getting revenge on one's enemies; it is also a primary instrument of humor and of satire ("all the necessities of life -- food, shelter, clothing, and a TV set"), and all important means of en larging the significance of a statement without making it seem unnecessarily exp licit. "Enlarging the significance of a statement" points to an ampler meaning often given to the word "implication" in ordinary discourse, a meaning roughly s ynonymous with "suggestion." When Laborite ... Bevan called an opponent "that Pa rliamentary doodlebug," he probably implied -- in this loose sense of the word - that the opponent was unfit to hold office or, at least, a fellow incapable of constructuve action. Implication, in this sense, may reach to teh furthest limi ts of association; in the stricter sense described above it includes only those additional statements logically entailed by the statement made. Implications and assumptions really represent the gap between all that a man means and the language he uses to express it. Without them people would be required to lenghten their assertions almost endlessly, and they would be depriv ed, as well, of many of the artful devices by which they convey subtleties of un derstanding and feeling which lose some of their character when they are put int o words. A considerable amount of the effectiveness of our language derives from the fact that people do not need to express explicitly everything they would ha ve their readers or listeners understand. Were it not for assumptions and implic ations, a simple command like "Shut the door" would have to be elaborated in thi s fashion: "There is a door here, and it is now open, and you are able to shut i t, and I want it shut; therefore, I order you to shut it; and I am treating you as a subordinate by omitting any polite form of request." And an exclamation lik e "Fire!" would require expansion to "There is fire here; it is a dangerous fire ; I advise everyone to get away from it as quicly as possible. There is no doubt , then, about the usefulness of this mode of saying less than we mean to have ou

r listeners understand; it is only the matter of determining precisely what is m eant in addition to what is explicitly assorted that makes a problem. Every extended piece of serious discourse is made up of a series of asse rtions, however disguised. If a writer had to deal with each as elaborately as t his book suggests, he would never get done. ... , if he is responsible about his work, he cannot ignore the ... consideration about asserting which underlies al l that has been here. A writer must know the nature of the assertions he makes in order to und erstand what meaning they can convey and what responsibilities they impose upon him. If that consideration becomes important to him, he has the kind of command over language that prepares him to represent honestly the world as he understand s it. Examples of Assumptions and Implications 1. High grades are desirable since they guarantee a good job after graduation. A: Employers place a premium on an excellent academic record. I: Students should always strive for high grades. 2. That candidate comes from a rich family, and therefore neither understands no r sympathizes with the problems of the poor. A: All rich people do not understand or sympathize with the problems of the poor . I: That candidate should not be voted into office. 3. Prices of basic commodities will decrease once oil prices decrease. A: Manufacturers will pass on the savings from their reduced energy bill to cons umers. Prior A: Electric companies will reduce their electric charges to reflect lower oil prices. Prior A: The National Power Corporation will reduce the cost of the energy it se lls to electric companies to reflect lower oil prices. I: The peso can buy more goods and services. Further I: Life will be a bit easier for the general populace. 4. By making the salaries of government employees competitive with those enjoyed by their counterparts in the private sector, the best and brightest men and wom en will work in the government service. A: Government heads will hire only the best and the brightest, not their unquali fied relatives, proteges or political allies. Prior A: Government heads are capable, honest and not politically motivated. Prior A: The national leadership is itself honest and capable, and possesses eno ugh political will to appoint only honest and capable officials. Prior A: It is possible, in this country, to have honest and capable leaders who are not politically motivated. I: Government will be able to function efficiently and effectively. Further I: The nation's economy, political system, social programs, etc. will be run well. Further I: Filipios will enjoy a better standard of living and improved quality of life.