15. Explain the first two rule for judging information objectively.

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In order to organize or judge anything, there must be a structure and basis, and judging historical claims objectively is no exception. To "evaluate and limit conflicting claims about the past", there are four rules. The first is that it must explain most of the observations throughout the claim while making few assumptions. A solid claim would state, "The stick is brown, course, and we found it at the base of a magnolia tree,"whereas; a weak claim would state "I think the stick comes from a magnolia branch." Assumptions can lead to faulty information and records, "Since New York is west of Chicago, and Chicago is west of Cleveland, therefore New York is west of Cleveland.This would be a good argument except for the faulty assumption that New York is west of Chicago" Also, there should be limited pre-conditions (for example, there should not be a lengthy clause that states... "in order for this to happen, x must happen and so must y and so must z." The variables stand for a number of preconditions.