We generally reason inductively and use cause and effect experiences to formulate a general conclusion; the future will be like the past. The principle of induction speculates that all members of a particular group will be very much alike to those that we observed. We naturally associate our knowledge of what we have not observed with memories and perception (Ladyman 35). For example, I know that a bachelor is unmarried before I happen to meet him. Hume calls this relation of ideas and he states that this is not knowledge nor a fact because it is contradictory if I have not experienced it (Ladyman 38). How do we reach a conclusion regarding unobserved matters of fact? Hume claims that knowledge of unobserved matters of fact cannot be
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The fate of a hypothesis is based on the principle of empiricism which systematically uses observations, experiments, and data to accept and reject a hypotheses (Ladyman 51). Theories are never accepted based on psychological or a logical induction (Ladyman 51). These experiments are stringent and their success in establishing correlations justifies us to believe that these relationships are evidence for casual connections. Hume showed that it is not possible to infer a theory based on a “track record”. For example, we know that the color of the grass is green, but we cannot conclude that grass always stays green once we go inside and stop perceiving it. We assume that nature is uniform based from our past experiences (Ladyman 44). This is an example highlighting the problem of induction and empiricism as we know grass can turn yellow during winter. From a scientific perspective, generalizations will never been certain by using induction. A challenge of empiricism and the problem of induction is that we expect our future observations to resemble the past but unobserved matters cannot be justified. Even though the Sun raised a millions times in the past, there is no justification that it will rise tomorrow. The problem of induction suggests that our scientific knowledge is an irrational habit and is
The fate of a hypothesis is based on the principle of empiricism which systematically uses observations, experiments, and data to accept and reject a hypotheses (Ladyman 51). Theories are never accepted based on psychological or a logical induction (Ladyman 51). These experiments are stringent and their success in establishing correlations justifies us to believe that these relationships are evidence for casual connections. Hume showed that it is not possible to infer a theory based on a “track record”. For example, we know that the color of the grass is green, but we cannot conclude that grass always stays green once we go inside and stop perceiving it. We assume that nature is uniform based from our past experiences (Ladyman 44). This is an example highlighting the problem of induction and empiricism as we know grass can turn yellow during winter. From a scientific perspective, generalizations will never been certain by using induction. A challenge of empiricism and the problem of induction is that we expect our future observations to resemble the past but unobserved matters cannot be justified. Even though the Sun raised a millions times in the past, there is no justification that it will rise tomorrow. The problem of induction suggests that our scientific knowledge is an irrational habit and is