Flow Chart for Evaluating Conceptual Premises

Longview Community College, Lee's Summit, Missouri

Critical Thinking
Across the
Curriculum Project

Flow Charts for Evaluating Arguments: Part II

Contributed by Michael Connelly, Longview Community College.

Flow Chart for Evaluating Conceptual Premises

Is the premise making an empirical claim or a conceptual one? If this is an Empirical Premise, then you need to see the Flow chart for evaluating the truth of Empirical Premises, Part III.

Which word does the the truth of the premise depend on? If you cannot tell, then either this is an empirical premise, or you need to re-evaluate the statement: is this a premise at all?

Begin reconstruction of Conceptual theory

what concept is the word meant to express?

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Do the conditions given for the concept seemcomplete?

Add in conditions that seem reasonable given commonusage.

Begin Evaluation of Conceptual Theory

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Are there any counterexamples to the conditions given?

Theory inadequate - premise is false

Are there any contradictory conditions?

Conceptual is inadequate,premise is considered FALSE.

Does the theory Elucidate? Conceptual Theory is inadequate, premise is considered FALSE.

Conceptual Theory is adequate - premise is probably true. (End of Analysis)

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Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum Project
Longview Community College , Lee's Summit, Missouri - U.S.A.
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Inquiries to: michael.connelly@kcmetro.edu
Last modified: 03/02/04