Defender Assumption Model

[rameday]

So I had a quick question. I remember in the module it mentioned that a classic defender assumption question was where the stimulus concluded that on the basis of a tiger no longer being present in location A it was exitinct. So a defender assumption would be that the tiger had not moved to another region of the world.

Would another defender assumption also be that the researchers had checked everywhere else in the earth? Or would that justify the conclusion?

A

[Steve Stein]

Hi,

Interesting question! If the argument was that a certain species was not in a particular location, it must be extinct. One defender assumption upon this argument is based is that the species not does exist in any other location, and would be that if the species were in that location, the researchers would have been able to detect it. If you take away either of these assumption, that would refute the author's conclusion.

I hope that's helpful! Please let me know whether this is clear--thanks!

Steve

[rameday]

yes this helps

[Steve Stein]

Hi Rameday,

That's great--I appreciate your response, and I'm glad that you found that helpful.

Thanks again!

~Steve