When a child wants to do something forbidden, often you hear an argument that goes something like this:
Child:聽鈥淭here鈥檚 nothing wrong with getting a tattoo. Other kids my age do it all the time.鈥澛犅犅犅犅犅犅犅犅犅
A common reply by parents quickly identifies the hidden assumption in the child鈥檚 argument:
Parent:聽鈥淎nd if other kids jumped off a cliff, would you do that too?鈥
The parent quickly sees that the child鈥檚 argument is based on a faulty, underlying assumption:聽If an action is done frequently by others, nothing is wrong with it.聽Some of the most important arguments in today鈥檚 society also have underlying assumptions that need to be made explicit in order for productive discussion to take place. For example:
Thesis:聽鈥淎bortion is wrong because killing an innocent person is wrong.鈥
The assumption here is that abortion involves the killing of a 鈥減erson.鈥 Indeed, defining exactly when a human egg, embryo or fetus attains 鈥減ersonhood鈥 is a key part of the聽聽abortion debate and of any paper written with this thesis.聽For our writing to be sound, we must deal with these underlying assumptions. In writing, all of our assumptions should be clear and supported. For example, let鈥檚 say this is your thesis for a paper:
Thesis:聽Teachers should not fail students because failing grades damage a student's self-confidence.
The underlying assumption聽is:聽Teachers have a duty not to damage students' self-confidence.聽Teachers may or may not have this obligation. That鈥檚 up to the writer to argue successfully. The point聽is this:聽For this thesis or any paper based on it to be successful, the writer must聽be aware of its underlying assumptions, make those assumptions explicit, and provide adequate support for them in order to be convincing.