Columnist: Taking a strong position on an issue makes one likely to misinterpret or ignore additional evidence that conflicts with one's stand. ███ ██ █████ ██ ██████████ ██ █████ ██████ ██ ██ █████████ ██ ████████ ████ ████████ ████████████ █████ ██ ██ ████ ███ ██ ████ █ ██████ ████████ ██ ██ █████ ██████ ███ ███ ███████ ██████████ ███ █████████ ████████ ███████████ ████ ████ █████████
The author concludes that if you haven’t already considered all important evidence conflicting with a position, then you should not take a strong position on an issue.
Why?
Because in order to understand an issue fully, it’s necessary to consider evidence that conflicts with one’s position.
The contrapositive of the premise allows us to infer that if you haven’t considered evidence that conflicts with your position, then you don’t understand an issue fully.
But how, then, does that prove that if we haven’t considered all important evidence conflicting with a position, we shouldn’t take a strong position on the issue?
The author is assuming a link from “don’t understand issue fully” to “shouldn’t take strong position.” In other words, the author’s assuming that in order for it to be appropriate to take a strong position, it’s necessary to understand an issue fully. This is why the author concludes that in order for taking a strong position to be appropriate, we should consider evidence conflicting with that position.
The columnist's reasoning most closely ████████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ███████████
It is reasonable ██ ████ █ ██████ ████████ ██ ██ █████ ██ ███ █████ ███████████ ███ █████ ███ ███ ██████████ ███ ████████ █████████ ████ █████ ████████████
To ensure that ███ ███ ███████████ ██████████ ███ ████████ █████████ ██ █████ ██ █████ ███ ███ █████ █ ██████ █████████ ███ ██████ █████ ███████████████ ██ ████████ ████████ █████████ ████ ██████
Anyone who does ███ ██████████ ██ █████ █████ ██████ █████ ██████ █ ██████ ████████ ██ ███
One should try ██ ██████████ ██ █████ █████ ██ █████ ██ ████ ████ ███ ██ █████ ███████████████ ██ ████████ ████████ █████████ ████ ██████
It is reasonable ██ ████ █ ██████ ████████ ██ ██ █████ ████ ██ █████ ██ █████████ ████████ ███████████ ████ ████ █████████