Reasonable Guidelines for Evidence and Acceptability

When Are Premises Acceptable?

1. When they are supported by cogent sub-arguments

Freedom, in education as in other things, must be a matter of degree. Some freedoms cannot be tolerated. I met a lady once who maintained that no child should ever be forbidden to do anything, because a child ought to develop its nature from within. “How about if its nature leads it to swallow pins?” I asked, but I regret to say the answer was mere vituperation. And yet every child, left to itself, will sooner or later swallow pins, or drink poison out of medicine bottles, or fall out of an upper winder, or otherwise bring itself to a bad end. At a slightly later age, boys, when they have the opportunity, will go unwashed, overeat, smoke till they are sick, catch chills from sitting in wet feet, and so on—let alone the fact that they will amuse themselves by plaguing elderly gentleman, who may not all have Elisha’s powers of repartee. Therefore, one who advocates freedom in education cannot mean the children should each do exactly as they please all day long. An element of discipline and authority must exist.

P1) Both younger and older children, left to themselves, can easily come to physical harm.

P2) Older children, left to themselves, often are very annoying to adults.

So,

L) Children simply cannot be left to do as they please all day long

Therefore,

C) There must be some element of discipline and authority in education.

When the premises are supported elsewhere

E.g., when a footnote cites a study or an authority that supports the premise.

When they are known to be a priori true (contrast with empirical)

All bachelors are unmarried men.

When they are a matter of common knowledge

- Human beings have hearts

- Dogs poop

When are Testimonial Premises Unacceptable?

1. When they are implausible (contradict common knowledge)

2. When they come from an unreliable person or source

* My Side Bias (e.g., a sports fan isn’t an objective observer)

3. When the claim goes beyond what the person could know from personal experience.

Questions to Ask when Appealing Authority

· Is the authority a recognized expert in her field?

· Is the authority commenting on something in her area of expertise?

· Does what the authority says make sense?

· Do the authorities disagree?