Categories of Legitimate Reservations (CLR 's) explanations

How do you scrutinise an 'If...Then...' connection?

Clarity:

'Would I feel compelled to add explanation if I were reading this to someone else?'

'I don’t understand the entity/arrow... Could you explain further what you mean?'

or 'Let me see if I understand. Is this what you mean?'

Entity Existence.

Structure: Read the entity alone to ensure that it is a full statement.

Content: 'Does this entity, as expressed, really exist in the environment?'

Causality Existence.

Structure: Read the arrow 'if...then...' and listen for partial statements. 

Content: 'Does the ‘if...then...’ really make sense in the environment?’

and 'Is the cause why the effect exists or how we know it exists?' (e.g. 'House on Fire')

Cause Insufficiency: 

Does the effect always result when the cause exists, or only under certain circumstances?'

(The 'certain circumstances' becomes another cause to be joined by an ellipse).

Additional Cause: 

Does the cause explain the magnitude of the effect in reality or are there other significant causes contributing as well?

What tool do we use when we feel we need to really prove an answer to one of the questions above?

Predicted Effect:

For Entity Existence, ask: 'What effect would you expect to see if the entity did (or didn’t) exist?', and, 'does it exist?'.

For Causality Existence, ask: 'If we got rid of (or increased) the cause, would there be a significant impact on the effect?'.

Or ask: 'Using the same logic that exists behind the arrow, what other effect would you expect to see as an unavoidable result of the cause, and does it exist or not?'.