Scribd
Upload
277 views1 page

Deductive and Inductive Arguments

1) A deductive argument is one where the premises are intended to logically prove the conclusion. An inductive argument provides probabilistic support for the conclusion based on the premises. 2) To evaluate a deductive argument, one determines if the reasoning is valid and the premises are true. An inductive argument is evaluated based on factors like sample size, bias, and relevance to support the probability of the conclusion. 3) Examples given include a valid deductive argument where the premises must make the conclusion true, and an inductive argument from observing white swans to conclude the next swan seen will probably be white, based on factors like a large unbiased sample size.

Uploaded by

Trisha Meneses
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
277 views1 page

Deductive and Inductive Arguments

1) A deductive argument is one where the premises are intended to logically prove the conclusion. An inductive argument provides probabilistic support for the conclusion based on the premises. 2) To evaluate a deductive argument, one determines if the reasoning is valid and the premises are true. An inductive argument is evaluated based on factors like sample size, bias, and relevance to support the probability of the conclusion. 3) Examples given include a valid deductive argument where the premises must make the conclusion true, and an inductive argument from observing white swans to conclude the next swan seen will probably be white, based on factors like a large unbiased sample size.

Uploaded by

Trisha Meneses
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Deductive and Inductive Arguments

A deductive argument is one in which the premises should establish the conclusion. If the
argument is sound (the reasoning is good, or valid, and the premises are all true), then the conclusion
must be true. In the above argument if you accept the premise as true, then the conclusion must be
true, and the argument is sound. However, even though an argument has a deductive structure,
either the conclusion may be arrived at in a way that does not actually follow principles of good
reasoning (the reasoning is invalid), or at least one of the premises may be false.

The way to evaluate a deductive argument is to first decide if the conclusion actually follows from
the premises. Ask yourself: "Is the argument valid?" If not, if it is invalid, then the premises do not
establish the conclusion, and you have a reason to reject the conclusion. If it is valid, then you should
test the truth of the premises. If you believe that at least one premise is false, then you have another
reason to reject the conclusion. Thus, you can reject a conclusion for two reasons: if either

1.) The reasoning is not good, or invalid (regardless of whether the premises are true), or

2.) At least one premise is false (regardless of whether the reasoning is good, or valid).

Once the unstated assumptions are added as additional premises, the reasoning in the argument from
the previous section is valid, so the only way to criticize that argument is to claim that at least one of
the premises is false. In order to do that you would need to argue either that one of the additional
premises could be rejected as false or that the antecedent of the conditional statement can be true
and the consequent can be false, and thus reject the conditional statement as false. Either way, you
would have to create an argument in order to justify rejecting any of the premises.

An inductive argument is one where the truth of the premises provides a reason for
accepting the conclusion along some scale of probability. Scientific reasoning is often like this. A
strong inductive argument is one where the conclusion is most probably true, given that the premises
are true. A weak inductive argument is one where the conclusion is probably not true. A famous
example of a simple inductive argument is:

Premise: Every swan ever observed thus far has been white. 


Conclusion: Therefore, the next swan observed will probably be white.

If the sample of swans was unbiased and large enough, say, thousands of randomly observed swans
over hundreds of years, we have good reason to accept the conclusion as probably true, so the
argument is strong. However, the discovery of black swans shows that the conclusion does not have
to be true even though the premise was true and the argument strong. It was reasonable to accept
the conclusion until the exception was discovered. Moreover, depending on where you are in the
world, if the number of white swans far exceeds the number of black swans, then it may still be
reasonable to accept the conclusion as probably true. Evaluating inductive arguments can be quite
tricky. In the swan argument above, you would want to determine whether:

1. The sample size was large enough. A few swan sightings over a few days would not be a
sufficient sampling of swans.
2. The sample was unfairly biased. For example, were all of the observations made in only one
restricted geographical location – say, a single zoological garden?
3. The conclusion is relevant to the premises. For example, a conclusion concerning alligators
based on swan sightings is clearly not relevant.

You might also like