Questions tagged [induction]
For posts concerning Induction, an analytical method that makes predictions of future results based on observations of past behavior.
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What is the best reference for understanding inductive theories of knowledge?
I am looking for a pedagogical outline of the inductive theory of knowledge. Something along the lines of a level textbook (graduate or undergraduate) reference rather than references to classic texts....
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Is scientific method entirely based on statistics (statistical inference)?
If I am correct the scientific method is an application of induction to science.
Is the scientific method entirely based on statistics (statistical inference)? (I guess so, because it makes use of ...
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Is the argument by analogy logically consistent?
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/other-minds/#ArguAnal
I'm a bit confused by the criticism here.
That is, this argument has no problems with logical sequence and if the premises are correct, then ...
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Is the problem of induction ultimately just a problem of justification?
Unless a statement is logically necessarily true or false, are we ever justified to make an inference on anything?
No matter what one uses or what reasons one comes up with to justify X, one can ...
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Is backtesting inductive reasoning?
WE do backtesting in finance, that is we guess hypotheses/premises and then use previous data to verify it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backtesting.
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/backtesting....
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Are there any examples of two theories that accurately describe a phenomenon where the more complex one was found to be correct?
I was reading this answer on how Solomonoff's theory of inductive inference can be used to posit the more correct theory amongst a set that provide the expected "answer", where the shorter, ...
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Mill's methods - logic
Which Mill's method (not considering their limitations) would you use if you need to rule out the identity of a murderer based on the murders he already committed?
The only possible answers are method ...
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What is a precise formulation of how people select one association as a high-probability indicator?
Consider there are 2 problems for some given belief.
It is claimed that a present state of affairs strongly implies or determines, or makes highly probable, some future state of affairs - some ...
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Do we ever actually reason from induction?
The sun has risen every day for many years. It would be unwise to bet on it not rising tomorrow. But is this because it has risen every day, or because there is nothing to suggest anything would be ...
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Is Rule-Based Machine Learning an Example of Inductive Logic in the Philosophical Sense?
Human beings are capable of deciding upon rules based on intuitions and observations their neurons presumably provide (certainly metaphysical presumptuous). According to WP, this is inductive ...
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How does Hume get rid of the problem of induction “probabilistically”?
Just because the sun rises every day, doesn’t mean it will rise tomorrow. Hume points out that the former doesn’t imply the latter.
But he also argues that it doesn’t even imply that it is probable ...
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What is a rule of inductive inference?
What is a rule of inductive inference? I'm not looking for any examples, but for definitions - what makes the logical form of an inductive argument a rule of inductive inference?
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Does the problem of induction justify insanity?
Insanity or delusions are defined as having beliefs that aren’t true. But how we come to true beliefs about the world often if not always relies on induction.
Suppose you are a person on a really tall ...
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In which work does Wolfgang Stegmuller criticize anti-inductivism and Karl Popper?
In the introductory note to the third edition of Fact Fiction and Forecast, Nelson Goodman writes that "Wolfgang Stegmuller has corrected the notion thnat 'anti-inductivists' of the school of ...
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Is it a fallacy to argue "Once a thief, always a thief"?
I was looking online to see if this argument was a fallacy, but I couldn't find anything. It reminds me of the problem of induction, whereby one cannot predict what the future holds based on past ...
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Why is the notion of similarity rarely discussed in philosophy when it underpins almost all forms of argument? [closed]
You cannot have any sort of inductive argument without having some sort of base set to make an inductive reference from. But choosing elements in that set requires some notion of them being similar to ...
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Are there concepts of laws-of-physics where the laws have a "fail rate"?
The closest to this idea I could find was talk of ceteris paribus laws, but it was hard to tell how much this concerned physics, even just potentially/speculatively. But having decided to believe that ...
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Does Newton’s First Law of Motion assist in validating the Uniformity Principle?
Does Newton’s First Law of Motion assist in validating induction?
The Principle of Uniformity holds that the events of the future will resemble those of the past. That principle underpins the ...
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Is the subjective nature of similarity a weak point of analogical/inductive reasoning?
Although inductive and analogical reasoning work, they work depending on some notion of similarity.
For example, the argument that "All swans observed have been black. The next swan we observe ...
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How to formalise inductive reasoning? [closed]
How can I formalise inductive reasoning or findings, for example, from grounded theory studies?
I understand deductive reasoning could use first-order logic to demonstrate the validity of an argument (...
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Confused about inductive arguments
I am having trouble understanding inductive arguments, i'm just not sure about how particular observed occurances are supposed to combine into a single definition.
Example 1:
(1) My friend is a ...
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Types of reasoning in mathematics
Can we say that analytical approaches is deductive reasoning and numerical approaches(numerical analysis) is inductive reasoning ?
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How many "degrees" of knowledge is conceivable?
Not sure if this is the right place for this, but there's something I've been pondering about and can't wrap my head around.
Say person A knows something, that person B does not. Let's call that the ...
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Falsification of a statement
Is falsification only applicable to deductive reasoning (as opposed to inductive, abductive and speculative deductive reasoning)?
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What is the relationship between algorithms and logic?
Is an algorithm (cooking a dish, Grover's/Shor algorithm, etc.) a form of deductive reasoning or inductive reasoning, and if not what exactly is the relationship between an alogorithm and logic?
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Is there a term that means "soft validity?"
By "soft validity" I mean this: The formal definition of validity is that if the premises are true, the conclusion must be true. I will call this "hard validity." "Soft ...
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Are mathematical proofs subject to the problem of induction?
When I consider a proof, such as Euclid's proof of the infinitude of primes, it can give a sense that something necessarily true has been obtained.
I cannot remember where I got the idea, but a few ...
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What does philosophy of science say about an example that "supports" a hypothesis but at the same time seriously undermines it?
A hypothesis can be seriously weakened by an example that supports it. Assumption: No one can be taller than 9 feet. Example: There is a person who is 8 feet 1 inch tall". The discovery of such a ...
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What does the 3rd edition of Fact, Fiction, and Forecast say about grue?
On my website, I have reproduced the passages from Nelson Goodman's book Fact, Fiction, and Forecast that define his famous predicate grue (and related predicates such as emeruby). In fact, I have ...
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Causation with Inductive/Deductive Logic
I'm sofa-philosopher and I have a case I can't quite dismantle. My friend (let's call him John) just made a statement that I find philosophically weak, and I'd like to run it thru you guys.
So, John ...
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Non-Deductive methods in philosophical argumentation
I'm a mathematician, and I'm trying to expand my understanding of the philosophical basis of mathematics. Mathematics is very much taught axiomatically establishing deductive theories, but philosophy ...
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Is mathematical induction deduction, and if so, why is it so named?
By induction, I mean this screenshot from this Youtube video
Abduction as an Aspect of Retroduction | Chiasson, Phyllis | Commens
Induction:
The prefix “in,” also from the Latin has to do with ...
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Does 1. extra-, 2. intra-polation fall under abduction, induction or deduction?
How does extrapolation relate to abduction, deduction, and/or induction? Scilicet, does abduction, deduction, and/or induction fully encompass Extrapolation?
Same question for Interpolation.
I ...
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Science, where is the difference between law and principle?
Theories contain laws, definitions, explain and predict aspects of nature.
A law in itself does not explain, but only reflects cause-effect relationships of empirical data (usually in the form of a ...
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What can be known and what can be believed when neither induction nor deduction is justified?
Kant is well known for taking seriously the lack of justification for induction voiced by Hume and finding what is left for us to be able to know and believe.
I wonder, with the knowledge that the ...
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Is there such a thing as inductive reasoning?
When I form hypotheses, don't I actually only use deduction instead of induction? Suppose I observe that the sun rises 5 days in a row, so I hypothesise that the sun rises every day.
But for this I am ...
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The problem of induction and coherentism
My understanding of the problem of induction is this. You want to hypothesise that the future is like the past (let us call this hypothesis H), and so justify the scientific practice of making ...
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Are all deductive arguments - formal arguments?
For an example, it looks like I have an example of an argument which is both deductive and informal:
Gabriel is a wolf
Gabriel has a tail.
Therefore, Gabriel’s tail is the tail of a wolf
I consider it ...
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Working of Mathematical Induction
I am aware of what proof by Mathematical Induction is. I have also used it in numerous proofs. However, I don't understand formal correctness/validity of the method down to the level of Peano Axioms. ...
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Doesn't infinite regress go backward forever? Is SEP wrong?
I have always understood infinite regress to mean going backwards forever. (Forever as in endlessly, not necessarily temporally). A model would be the negative integers, if we viewed them as a model ...
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Hume's induction using circularity fallacy
Hello everyone, i was going through this reading of a book in which it present Hume's induction wrong using circularity . I was trying to find some error in it as given there but could not pinpoint ...
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Are the premises of deductive arg's. founded upon inductive cases?...help is what I am in need of
Let's take this example of a deductive argument:
P1: Monkeys like bananas.
P2: Lucy is a monkey.
C: Therefore, Lucy likes bananas.
Disregarding whether this argument is true or false, how does one ...
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Does all deductive knowledge stem from inductive observation?
Given the premise that deductive reasoning needs a premise statement to get started, ultimately do these premises come from inductive observation? e.g.
When the sun is out it’s daytime. The sun is out....
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Questioning Kant's resolution to induction
From what I haved gathered from the first sections of the Critique, Kant wants to resolve the problem of induction by adding the a priori concept of (the necessity between) cause and effect to our ...
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Probabilistic Interpretation of Hume's Problem of Induction
I am a mathematician who has recently started delving into philosophy and I had a thought today.
From what I understand, the scientific method can be described in the following terms.
Suppose we have ...
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Inductive strength & tracking requirement
An inductive inference is usually considered strong if its conclusion is probably true, given true premises. In Tracking Track Records, Peter Lipton (giving credit to Nozick) suggests that a strong ...
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Does Bayesian epistemology solve Hume’s problem of induction?
Or, does it just sidestep it? Or, is it just completely unrelated to it? I’m having trouble seeing what the connection might be. It seems to me that Bayesians solve it by saying, take:
Your prior ...
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Does this argument disprove immaterialism?
-Every observation we have analysed has a material cause.
-By inductive reasoning, all observations have materialistic causes.
-Hence, there are no immaterial causes and immaterialism doesn't exist.
(...
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Resolve the contradiction/paradox [closed]
-We have observed that the color of a raven is black.
-Every non-blue thing I have observed
in my room is non-raven.
-By inductive reasoning, every non-blue thing I will observe in my room is non-...
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Trying to understand the fallacy in my inductive reasoning regarding this conclusion? [closed]
Consider the following statements:
Anna told you she failed her physics midterm.
Anna hasn't been in physics class since the teacher graded the exams.
Anna has been in sociology class, which meets ...
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