Inductive reasoning

Matthew McGee Epistemology Final Paper Q1 Goodman 's “grue” example and Hempel’s Raven Paradox are very similar. The Raven Paradox posits that for any given object x, when we assert that it is neither black, nor a raven, we are confirming the hypothesis that “all non-black things are non-ravens” (pg, 70). From this we can also make the logically equivalent statement that “all ravens are black.” This is an unexpected conclusion according to Goodman. Furthermore, our statement about the…

or you do not know what something (x) is. 2) The second premise follows from this, if you already know what x is, investigating x is unnecessary and inquiry into x is pointless. 3) Thirdly, if you don’t know what x is inquiry is impossible. The reasoning behind this premise is that since you cannot identify x when you see it, and thus would be incapable of investigating it since you would have no source to direct your investigation upon in the first place – and therefore inquiry is impossible.…

For example, when a theory is evaluated, and the prediction does not match the results, we use deductive logic to declare the theory false. However, when a theory is evaluated, and the prediction does match the results, we would typically use inductive logic to affirm the theories truth. However, Popper claims that science can only falsify theories, theories that make correct predictions can never be affirmed. Instead, scientists must assert (when met with correct predictions) that they failed…

This falls under the private reasoning time of the Habits of Interaction. My group did this very well on the activities that we did in class, this is because we were all very passionate about this habit. We did this particularly well on Activity 1.4, this was a longer activity that was…

While Reid seems to show some signs of respect for Hume, he does have many criticisms of the author’s work. The fourth chapter of Reid’s Active Power in General is a direct critique of Hume’s work. Especially Hume’s thoughts on the powers of the individual. His main problem with Hume was the way he used induction for the Treatise. Hume attempts to treat his thoughts on human abilities like a scientific experiment. Reid notes Hume makes exceptions to this, which is going against the scientific…

no justification for induction. However, he argues that it is nevertheless rational to make inductive inferences. In essence, his theory is that induction is rational because if we don’t employ induction then we are guaranteed to end up with very few true beliefs about the world, while if we do use induction then we at least have the change to form lots of true beliefs about the world through our inductive inferences. That is, if anything is going to work, then it is going to be induction, so it…

and to back up reasoning, it had as many weaknesses as strengths. It’s why reason as a way of knowing is not reliable as we could think. In this essay, I will to put in evidence the strengths and the weaknesses of reason through deductive and inductive logic, ethic, mathematic, medicine and finally religious aspects. The first strength of reasoning is that it seems to give certainty to what we say. It gives us certainty thanks to a correct logical reasoning. A correct reasoning involves…

Hume & Induction On a daily basis, all mankind habitually utilizes a certain principle to obtain answers in their lives. This principle entails reasoning through a collection of several observations. David Hume labels this process as the principle of induction. Although it is used by everyone in the world, Hume questions the validity of it. One can equate Hume’s questioning to a popular saying, if everyone jumped off a cliff would you jump with them? While closely analyzing this subject, he…

believed that all subjects must have some type of guideline or uniformed code to follow. These guidelines used inductive reasoning to find a solution. Inductive reasoning gathers data first before coming to a conclusion. On the other hand Aristotle’s wanted to use deductive reasoning. Aristotle wanted to take each subject and use a hypothesis and prove the theory. By using deductive reasoning he could use many hypotheses and weed out a conclusion. Once a hypothesis proved wrong, it could be…

For Hume, the idea of “reason” refers to inductive reasoning, or the ability to make associations between different things, and to recognize cause and effect. He argues that animals learn things two ways: from observation, and from instinct (Hume, pg. 71,72). Both of his ideas are persuasive, especially when looking at the behavior of chimpanzees and their use of tools. However, his argument that animals learn based on experience or observation is slightly more persuasive than his argument that…