Option 1: Report Wrongdoing
Who is helped? company Long/short term? Short (get rid of bad employee)
Who is harmed? self Long/short term? Short (might lose job)
Option 2: Keep Quiet
Who is helped? self Long/short term? Long (career stable)
Who is harmed? company Long/short term? Long (wrongdoing continues)
Practice
Use a chart similar to the one above to explore the possible consequences of each option in the following scenario.
The owner of a small store finds out that his best employee, a college student, closed the store an
hour early over the weekend so she could attend a party. This employee has consistently been an
excellent, dependable worker, and is the only one the owner can trust to close the store in his
absence. In fact, finding reliable help is very difficult. However, by closing an hour early, the
employee cost the store-owner a few hundred dollars in profits, based on typical Saturday night
sales. Should the store-owner confront the employee about the early closing? Fire her? Pretend it
didn’t happen?
Option 1:
Who is helped? Long/short term?
Who is harmed? Long/short term?
Option 2:
Who is helped? Long/short term?
Who is harmed? Long/short term?
Option 3:
Who is helped? Long/short term?
Who is harmed? Long/short term?
–MAKING JUDGMENT CALLS–
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Answer
Remember that judgment calls are not clear-cut. There is not always one right answer. However, a good response
is one that adequately explores all three options and their possible consequences. Below is such as response.
Option 1: Confront the Employee
Who is helped? store owner Long/short term? Long (won’t lose profits again)
Who is harmed? store owner Long/short term? Long (might lose employee)
Option 2: Fire Employee
Who is helped? no one Long/short term?
Who is harmed? store owner Long/short term? Possibly Long (won’t easily
replace employee, will have to
do more work himself)
Option 3: Say Nothing
Who is helped? employee Long/short term? Long (won’t be embarrassed
about incident, will keep job)
Who is harmed? store owner Long/short term? Both (might lose more profits
from early closings)
–MAKING JUDGMENT CALLS–
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In Short
Judgment calls can be difficult. In a situation where the stakes are high, and even the experts disagree, you may
not want to make a choice that is, at best, subjective and debatable. But there are many circumstances in which
you will have to do just that. You will need to consider any facts you can gather, the advice of others, your intu-
ition, and even your values. Take your time with judgment calls, and with practice, you will become more con-
fident in making them.
■Although they rely on evidence and prior decisions, judges must make judgment calls frequently.
Check the newspaper for a complicated case and find out more information about it online. Look
at the evidence that was presented by both sides. On what do you think the judge based his or
her decision?
■Have you ever downloaded music without permission from the Internet? Maybe you know some-
one who has. Was the decision a judgment call? If so, how did you come to your decision?
Skill Building Until Next Time
YOU HAVE GOT some explaining to do!” Everyone is in the position on occasion to either
explain themselves or hear explanations from others. Sometimes, it involves a simple inci-
dent like showing up late to a movie. At other times, though, an explanation can make or
break a career, or encourage a terrible decision. Explanations are often taken for granted, but, as with argu-
ments, they can be effective or ineffective. They can get someone off the hook, or deeper into hot water. Under-
standing what a good explanation is, and how to differentiate it from an argument, are important critical
thinking skills.
What Is an Explanation?
At first glance, this seems like a simple question. Someone asks,“why did you do it?”Your answer, the expla-
nation, gives them the reasons. In an explanation, a statement, or set of statements, is made that gives new
information about something that has been accepted as fact. In answer to the question, “why did you do
LESSON
Explanation or
Argument?
LESSON SUMMARY
In this lesson, you will learn how to judge explanations, and what makes
them effective or ineffective. You will also learn how to tell the differ-
ence between explanations and arguments.
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“
it?” you are not going to reply that you did not do it
(that would be an argument). It is accepted that you did
something, and you are going to give information that
tells why you did it.
An explanation is made up of two parts, the thing
that will be explained (known as the explanadum), and
the set of statements that is supposed to do the explain-
ing (known as the explanans). If you were to answer
the question,“why did you buy that car?”you might say,
“I bought this car because it gets great gas mileage.” The
phrase “I bought this car” is the explanadum. “It gets
great gas mileage” is the explanans.
When an explanation is accepted, it removes or
lessens a problem. The “why?” is solved. In the exam-
ple above, the person asking the question does not
understand something (why you bought a certain car).
After your explanation, she will. In addition, a good
explanation is relevant. That is, it speaks directly to the
issue. If someone asks you,“why did you show up late,”
and you reply,“I was late because my shirt is blue,” you
have given a poor explanation. It is not relevant to the
question that was asked.
To summarize, the four indicators of a good
explanation are:
1. it gives new information
2. its topic is accepted as fact
3. when accepted, it removes or lessens a problem
4. it is relevant
In Lesson 13, you learned about the fallacy of cir-
cular reasoning. Logical arguments must have premises
that lead to a valid conclusion. If the premise is simply
a restatement of the conclusion, the argument is cir-
cular (and therefore invalid). “I like the Cubs because
they are my favorite team” is an example of circular rea-
soning, because the premise (they are my favorite team)
is the same as saying the conclusion (I like the Cubs).
Explanations may be circular as well. When they
are, they offer no new information.
Example
I did well on my SATs because I got a high
score.
The explanadum and the explanans simply
repeat each other. Doing well on a test and getting a
high score are different ways of saying the same thing.
In order to make this an effective explanation, the
speaker would have to give new information. We
already know she did well on the test, but why? She
might say:
I did well on my SATs because I studied
and got enough rest before the test.
This explanation works because the explanans tell
something new (the facts that the speaker studied and
got enough rest). It also fulfills the other three marks
of a good explanation. It is about something that is not
disputed—in this case, the fact that the speaker did well
on her SATs. It solves the problem of not knowing why
she did well. It is relevant; the reasons for the
explanadum are good ones. They make sense. If the
speaker said instead, “I did well on my SATs because I
have a dog that won’t walk on a leash,” we could say that
the explanation is irrelevant. The fact that he has a dog
has nothing to do with doing well on a standardized
test.
This seems straightforward enough. Good expla-
nations give new, relevant information about a topic,
accepted as fact, that is problematic or puzzling. It is
usually easy to spot an explanation that does not work
on one or more of these points, such as telling some-
one they need to drink more milk because the sky is
blue. However, it can get confusing when an argument
–EXPLANATION OR ARGUMENT?–
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