Rivera-Williams_wk 1 Phi 103_assignment

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DISTIGUISHING THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN INFERENCE AND ASSUMPTION By: Frances Rivera-Williams PHI 103: Informal Logic Professor John Ludes June 2, 2015

The difference between inferences and assumptions are defined by “Critical thinking.org” as: “An inference is a step of the mind, an intellectual act by which one concludes that something is true in light of something else’s being true, or seeming to be true.” (Paul & Elder, 2013) “An assumption is something we take for granted or presuppose. Usually it is something we previously learned and do not question.” (Paul & Elder, 2013) For example, we can see a woman walking down the street with a bunch of bags in a shopping cart and believe that the woman is a bag lady or homeless. The inference here would be that we see the woman walking with a shopping cart full of bags. The assumption would be that we believe that she is either a bag lady or homeless. It never occurred to us that she may not have transportation and needed the shopping cart to get her groceries back to her home. Looking back to several situations that I made assumptions on, I never thought that some of them were inferences and not assumptions. Example 1: In high school, I saw a young lady with 2 black eyes and a bandage across her nose. My first thought was that she had gotten into a fight and ended up getting beat up. I never once thought that she had just had plastic surgery on her nose and in the healing process she would have 2 black eyes. I never had met anyone that has had plastic surgery before so I did not know that is what they look like afterwards. Needless to say, I felt like a real idiot afterwards. Example 2: I lived in a neighborhood where neighbors looked out for each other. One day, I was sitting on the porch and I saw a man in the driveway of a neighbor, he had a hanger in the window of the woman’s car. I did not know that she had locked her keys in the car and he was a friend trying to open the door to help her retrieve the keys. When you live in a high crime area, you see a situation like this and believe that the man was a car thief trying to break into this woman’s car. My first thought was to call the police, but instead I went over and asked him what he was doing. He introduced himself to me as the woman was walking out her home and was embarrassed that she had locked the keys in the car. Then she tried to play matchmaker and introduced the young man to me as a friend of the family. Example 3: One day I was on my way to work. I saw a man running at a high rate of speed down the street towards the bus station, with a woman’s purse in his hand. I thought that he had just purse

snatched some poor woman and was going to use public transportation to make his getaway. I was waiting for the light to turn green and sat there watching, debating whether I should call the cops or not. As I continued to watch, I see an older woman reach out the window of the bus and grab the purse. I later found out that the guy was her son, whom she had called to run her purse to her before she went to work. I felt silly after that because I thought that because he was African American that he was a purse snatcher. Example 4: I was entering a gas station and there was a man outside asking for spare change. I assumed that he was just another panhandler trying to get up some money to either buy drugs and/or alcohol. I wanted to give him a lecture, until he informed me that his car had ran out of gas. As he walked the 5 or so miles to the gas station, he realized that he had left his wallet in the car. I did not believe him, so I offered to get him some gas and take him back to his car. I felt so bad when I saw his car with its flashers on. Then once we got there, he pulls out his wallet and tried to repay me for the gas and the ride back to his car. I politely declined and told him to just pay it forward. After reviewing the article “Distinguishing between Inferences and Assumptions” by Richard Paul and Linda Elder, a very good point was made. “Humans make hundreds of assumptions without knowing it---without thinking about it. Many assumptions are sound and justifiable. Many, however, are not. The question then becomes: “How can students begin to recognize the inferences they are making, the assumptions on which they are basing those inferences, and the point of view, the perspective on the world that they are forming?” (Paul & Elder, 2013)

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Reference Paul, R & Elder, L. (2013) “Distinguishing between Inference and Assumption” retrieved from http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/distinguishing-between-inferences-and-assumptions/484 This article was adapted from the book, “Critical Thinking: Tools for Taking Charge of Your Learning and Your Life.” 3 rd edition.

Rivera-Williams_wk 1 Phi 103_assignment

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