For argument's sake

The reading comprehension section of the Common Admission Test (CAT) allows for intense wordplay. The other day in class, we did a passage on Immanuel Kant. In the Kantian system of ethics, a person's morality is the result of his intentions, not their consequences. On "immediate inclination", Kant says that if one helps a beggar because one would otherwise feel guilty and not inherently for the betterment of the beggar, one is not moral because one's good deed arose out of an immediate inclination to do good for one's benefit.

My students flared in protest.

"But the fact that one would feel guilty about not helping the beggar implies that one has his scruples right, isn't it?"

"He is a little bizarre on ethics. Long on logic, short on common sense."

"Kant is saying that the guilt stems from self-preservation without regard for the beggar. Isn't that a twisted argument?"

"If I lie for a good cause, that can't be wrong? If I have a Jew in my house and the Gestapo came looking for him, I would be mad to hand him over - to hell with my intentions."

"What difference does it make what your motive for helping the beggar is if he gets the help he needs? Just give the beggar some money, Immanuel!"

Ha ha ha. They are right on the money. It's a joy conversing with them. Every time the daily struggle known as living in the metropolis begins to get to me, I simply think of my classes and tell myself that no matter how much I compromise, my love for my work will ensure I move on to better avenues and other cities so long as I can keep a sense of perspective and oodles of patience.

In fact, it's scary how intimately connected the notion of a job can get to one's sense of worth. I am defined by my classes. I seek out my students whose approval is important to me, their expectations a driving force connecting my days. While I teach the same thing to every batch in the course of any given week, every student brings something different to the class and each articulation takes the class down a different path.

This week, for instance, was devoted to critical reasoning (CR), in which we discuss the building blocks of an argument, namely, the premise, assumption, inference and conclusion. I explained to students the importance of distinguishing an assumption from an inference. When presented with an argument, most students mistake one for the other. Inferences are self-evident cousins of conclusions, ergo they are easier to detect than assumptions, which are dicey little nuggets that must be thrashed out.

A sample question will explain: at a college it is observed that students who receive financial assistance do better than those who don't. This stated fact is what is called the premise. Based on this, a conclusion is drawn that financial assistance leads to better academic performance since it frees the student from the burden of arranging monies. To reach such a conclusion, one must assume that academic performance itself was not the basis of awarding financial assistance since if that were true, then the correlation between financial help and academic performance topples.

CAT generally has one to two questions of the assumption-inference kind. Among the options, two or more inferences are included to confuse test takers (generally, the question is about finding the assumption). When preparing for the session, I searched for GMAT questions since CR is a major component of that exam. I browsed through several online forums on CR where detailed discussion facilitates clarity. I enjoyed reading up the questions so much that I ended up including 25 of them for the classroom exercise.

It took a few hours and then with the printout in hand, I set about preparing explanations for each question. Every question in the exercise had four options, of which one was the correct answer (the assumption), and the others were either inferences or were irrelevant. For example, in the case discussed above, an inference would read: Finance-related stress can adversely affect academic performance. That will have to be true if the conclusion holds true, but is not an assumption for the argument. An irrelevant option might be: more men than women perform better academically when they are awarded a scholarship. Since the argument does not discuss gender, such an option can be discarded straightaway.

For all 25 questions, I demarcated each option for what it was. (Psst: once the initial excitement withered, it was rather dreary.) But I was to be rewarded for the extra effort. In class, students have a habit of trumping my assumptions about what they would need help with. Often the easiest questions (in my view) take the longest time explaining. So much so that I have had to warn them to think twice if they find an option too attractive - it will likely be an inference, not an assumption. On such occasions, it's always helpful to have detailed notes at hand to turbocharge the class with confidence and determination.

The author has switched too many jobs in the past and hopes he can hold down this one