Can anyone explain the difference between assumption and inference? I'm having a difficult time distinguishing the difference on LR questions!
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Can anyone explain the difference between assumption and inference? I'm having a difficult time distinguishing the difference on LR questions!
2 comments
Hello! An 'assumption' is a premise that is not directly given to you as a solid fact. The two types of Assumption questions in LR are Necessary Assumption and Sufficient Assumption. A Necessary Assumption is the bare minimum the author must believe in order for their argument not to fall apart. A sufficient Assumption, on the other hand, is a powerful piece of new information that, if true, 100% guarantees the conclusion is correct (even if it is extreme and the author didn't strictly 'need' it).
I highly recommend checking out this lesson called 'Not all assumptions are equally reasonable' (https://7sage.com/lessons/foundations/arguments/not-all-assumptions-are-equally-reasonable) to learn more about assumptions! As the lesson states, the more reasonable an assumption is, the less that assumption renders the argument vulnerable to criticism. The less reasonable an assumption is, the more that assumption renders the argument vulnerable to criticism.
Inference, on the other hand, is always a valid piece of information you can draw from given pieces of fact. In an Inference/Must Be True question, the stimulus usually doesn't even have a conclusion. The text just gives you a set of solid facts, and your job is to combine them to find the answer choice that is 100% proven by the text. I hope this helps, and good luck!
@SerinJ Thank you so much!!!