Deductive logic interprets the circumstances through an existing audience belief. It uses this commonplace belief to reach a conclusion, a decision or an action that you want your audience to make.
Give your children the best education possible by sending them to the finest high school in the city, Green Meadows Prep.
The audience of parents who might send their children to private school holds the commonplace belief that giving their children the best education is important. Green Meadows school leads them to conclude that Green Meadow is the way to provide their children an excellent education.
But what if Green Meadows wants to recruit promising children from neighborhoods that have not had the economic means or the cultural history of sending their children to private school? The school can remove the economic obstacle with a financial aid program. But Green Meadow still has to convince families of the benefit of their school when these families don’t already possess commonplace beliefs about the value of a private school education.
These families may not see the value of preparing children for college if they expect children to work in the family business. Or they may be concerned about the moral environment of a school they aren’t familiar with. Or perhaps they are concerned that their children would drift away and their families would break apart.
They’re all valid concerns. Green Meadow must address them if they want to recruit these families.
When your audience doesn’t have commonplaces that lead to the conclusion you want them to make, then it’s time to switch from deductive logic to inductive logic.
Inductive logic is argument by example. Your examples form your proof. Instead of going from the general to the specific, you are going from specific examples to a general conclusion. Since your audience doesn’t already possess an existing belief, you use the circumstances to help them form a belief.
Examples can include facts, comparisons, or story. Facts and comparisons are useful on many occasions, but story is by far the most powerful example. Why? Because your story lets the audience simulate the experience of the action you want them to take. It’s almost as good as if they actually had the experience.
How would this work for Green Meadow School? They could use examples to help the audience form the same belief that their existing parents have, “give your children the best education possible.”ť
Facts and Comparisons: Green Meadow could make claims like these: “Children who get a private school education make more money and have a lower incidence of drug use and teen pregnancy.”
Story: Here the school can tell a few stories of families like those of the audience who sent their children to Green Meadow, students who encountered some obstacles but were able to overcome them. Their story can include the ways that the school supported those students, both inside and outside the classroom. The story can span the students’ successful transition to college and their continued strong relationships with their families.
By this time some families may be coming around to the belief in an excellent education and have reached the conclusion that Green Meadow can make it happen. The school has successfully used a few examples to show how an excellent education is advantageous to their audience of skeptical parents.
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About David Crankshaw
[...] INDUCTION – moving in the opposite direction, using an example to make a general point. Use examples (fact, comparison, and story) as your proof. The evidence can lead to a premise or a conclusion. [...]