This happened to me on a grad school barrier exam. It was a music theory "entrance" exam, and there were a number of leading questions on the listening portion. The leading questions all assumed that the listening piece was a sonata-allegro form--which I could tell by a quick glance at the score (within 10 seconds) that it was not. Oh, there were some similarities, alright, but there were one or two key requirements that clearly disqualified it as such. Most of my answers started with IF this is a sonata, then... One of the final questions for that portion was "Is this a sonata-allegro movement?" followed up with "If no, what is it?" I nearly instantly recognized what it was, so these last two questions were no-brainers.
Now, it depends on what the false premise is we're talking about here. If, say, we're talking about a philosophy class and your prof holds opinions you disagree with, you're in the position where what you think is in conflict with what your prof taught. He's the "man with the microphone," so you're powerless to really answer any other way than what he insists is right. You're not selling out by responding to what you've been taught in class.
I'm assuming you're an undergrad, since graduate programs typically demand that YOU have the answers and not the teachers. The thing I hated about my undergrad experience was that we were just expected to regurgitate the information we were fed, so it wasn't much unlike high school. Profs are increasingly concerned that students think for themselves. If you have a prof that is cool with that, you can respectfully disagree without your grade being affected. If you've had unresolved disagreements before and are afraid of compromising your values for the sake of intellectual dishonesty, you might consider talking to the dean of relevant university school, or at least the chairman of the relevant department. A false premise, IF IT REALLY IS A FALSE PREMISE, is basically misinformation and it simply won't do for college profs to be teaching it. I all-capped that because it's important for you to make sure that the premise itself isn't a subjective expression that you are merely imposing your own subjective attitudes on when you judge it.
Structure your answer as "IF x is true, then..." That shouldn't cause any problems unless your prof is like "What do you mean IF???"
I'm curious now. What is it you believe to be a false premise? And what is the question? I suspect there is something specific you're concerned about here.
08 Dec 2011, 10:46 pm
