PP110 Lecture Notes - Inductive Reasoning
Document Summary
The philosopher is above all someone who tests the reasonableness of beliefs, especially those concerning vexing questions. The philosopher relies on his/her reasoning to try to answer difficult questions. Therefore, argumentation is at the core of philosophical practice. An intellectual process that consists in a series of statements intended to establish a definite claim. A set of premises aimed to support a particular conclusion. To say that one claim, r, is deduced from others, p and q, is to say that if we hold p and q true then r must also be accepted as true. One is naturally obliged to believe r to be true. Example: every tennis player is well coordinated, martha plays tennis. Therefore, we can deduce that martha is well coordinated. It is an all-or-nothing process: one has no choice but to accept that the conclusion is true if it is accepted that the premises are true.
