PHI 1101 Chapter Notes - Chapter 5: Ottawa Public Library, Inductive Reasoning, Deductive Reasoning

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Philosophy
• Course: PHI 1101
• Professor: Iva Apostolova

Document Summary

Inductive reasoning (chapter 5: the nature of inductive reasoning. Inductive arguments, unlike deductive arguments, do not guarantee (the truth of) their conclusions. So, the strength of inductive arguments does not come from their structure, as is the case with deductive arguments. The premises provide probable truth for the conclusion. Inductive arguments, then, can never be sound arguments. Inductive reasoning extrapolates on what we know, using our current knowledge to arrive at conclusions which are not deductively implied by the premises. In other words, inductive reasoning allows us to arrive at genuinely new knowledge: the new knowledge comes at a cost: certainty, certainty in inductive reasoning is achieved empirically (through experience). Inductive reasoning rests on the assumption that nature is uniform. What does that mean: the uniformity of nature that can be verified directly or indirectly via observation. Types of inductive arguments: arguments by analogy.