The Satisfaction Academy

Critical Reasoning has always remained a predominant area of all the aptitude tests across the globe. There are seven main question stems under this domain. You might be asked to Find the Assumption Infer Conclude Strengthen the Argument Weaken the Argument Summarise Complete the Paragraph Starting with this article, we shall try and take these stems piecemeal, beginning with‘assumptions’. But, before we begin handling the question stems, it is important to turn a few pages backwards, and understand some basic terms in logic. The entire realm of logic thrives on the word Argument . An argument is NOT a verbal scuffle between persons. The normal, day-to-day connotation that we have come to attach with the term grossly misleads us into thinking that if two persons are fighting, with a heated exchange of words, they are ‘arguing’. This is sheer sacrilege!! For example: X: Avatar is a good film. Y: No, it is not! X: Yes, it is! Y: No, it is not! is N

Critical R has always remained a predominant area of all the aptitude tests across the globe. There are seven main question stems under this domain. You might be asked to Find the Assumption Infer Conclude Strengthen the Argument Weaken the Argument Summarise Complete the Paragraph Starting with this article, we shall try and take these stems piecemeal, beginning with‘assumptions’. But, before we begin handling the question stems, it is important to turn a few pages backwards, and understand some basic terms in logic. The entire realm of logic thrives on the word Argument . An argument is NOT a verbal scuffle between persons. The normal, day-to-day connotation that we have come to attach with the term grossly misleads us into thinking that if two persons are fighting, with a heated exchange of words, they are ‘arguing’. This is sheer sacrilege!! For example: X: Avatar is a good film. Y: No, it is not! X: Yes, it is! Y: No, it is not! is NOT an argument. It i

This chapter deals with reasoning through premises. It is called syllogisms. Broadly, you need to understand two types of arguments. We have already come to see what arguments look like. Now it is time to comprehend some ‘categories’ of arguments. Analyse this, (P1= Premise 1, P2= Premise 2, C= Conclusion) P1 – All men are buffoons. P2 – Ravi (poor chap) is a man. C – Ravi is a buffoon. This kind of argumentation is known as deductive reasoning. Here, the conclusion arrived at, is a logical ‘necessity’, which you will find me referring to henceforth as an LN. The structure of the deductive argumentation is simple. We picked a set, gave it a characteristic (P1), picked an element from the set (P2), and with certainty, arrived at the conclusion that the element shall show the same characteristic. P.S. I hope you understand that my sympathies with Ravi have nothing to do with the argument. Now, the second type, P1 – Ravi is an engineer. P2 – Ravi is a fool.