Case #4 Thesis Development Workshop

        Here are some premise-conclusion enthymemes taken from our basic case source.  Read each one and think about it for a moment.  Then, free-write in response to it for three minutes.  What have you discovered about your response to its logic and thesis?  When you are done, which piece of free-writing are you most impressed by in terms of its promise for further growth.  Make that your thesis and continue to write about it for the Friday rough-draft conferences.

Students responding to the U.S. Department of Education study:

• [Presumed premise: Drug use is bad only if you take drugs "to get high"--drugs used to improve your health or mental performance are all good.]
• Conclusion: I take mind-enhancing drugs "to help me with my problems" or "to help me with specific tasks," so they are good.

Richard Restak, on overall safety and legal use:

• [Supply the presumed premise(s):                         ]
• "We're going to see it not only in schools, but in businesses, especially where mental endurance matters."

Premises with implied conclusions [supply the conclusions] and conclusions with implied premises [supply the premise(s)]:

• "[I]t's medicine parents give to 8-year-olds, . . . brand-name stuff, in precise dosages."
• "In the name of altering mood, energy and thinking patterns, we have been marinating our brains in chemicals for a very long time."
• "Beta blockers have been the dirty little secret of classical musicians since the 1970s" . . . "when it became clear Inderol controlled stage fright."
• "Why should they be taking drugs?  They should just study!  I think this is absurd.  What's so terrible about having a 3.9?" (Eric R. Kandel)
• "There are lots of populations out there that really, really need help."  (Eric R. Kandel re: people with memory loss due to Down syndrome, chronic depression, Alzeheimer's, chemotherapy, or schizophrenia)