Many thanks, Bruce. Historical background always provides enlightenment.
So now then, does Sherlock induce or deduce?
Ron Sheen
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bruce D. Despain" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2007 3:04 AM
Subject: Re: Not so elementary, my dear Watson.Re: Inductive - Deductive:was
New discussion intelligence and grammar learning
> Ron,
>
> This extract from my introduction to grammar on the role of hypothesis may
> be helpful:
>
> Induction. The 17th Century philosopher, Francis Bacon, extended the
> set of acceptable tools of rational thought when he pointed out how
> investigators infer a scientific theory from the observed facts whenever
> they generalize. Generalization is the logical process of induction from a
> number of specific instances. Suppose scientists make the "same"
> observation a number of times. After so many observations they feel they
> are entitled to conclude (with some degree of certainty) that they are
> observing the effects of some general principle. (This kind of induction
> is distinct from what mathematicians know as induction. These people
> define mathematical induction with statements about numbers that make it
> for them in actuality an extension of deduction.) Bacon maintained that
> support for facts could come by both deduction and induction.
>
>
> Logical induction vs. deduction. In the mid-18th Century David Hume,
> clearly demonstrated the fact that Bacon's brand of logical induction
> cannot strictly qualify as a mode of reasoning. In order to establish
> induction on a basis as secure as deduction, philosophers are obliged to
> accept the validity of the conclusion (the general principle) to the same
> extent as the assumption. Only then would they be able to infer the
> conclusion with the same certainty as the assumptions.
>
>
> Inference. Inference by induction is a way of connecting
> experience - of making sense out of a collection of observations. The
> general principle that the investigator induces is the result of numerous
> confirmations of a hypothesis with failure to disconfirm it. It was Karl
> Popper, who in modern times was responsible for the rejection of induction
> as a mode of reasoning (Popper, 1972). Popper emphasized strongly that
> induction is actually quite the equivalent of hypothesis and experiment.
> Bruce
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Ronald Sheen" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Thursday, September 27, 2007 9:49 AM
> Subject: Not so elementary, my dear Watson.Re: Inductive - Deductive:was
> New discussion intelligence and grammar learning
>
>
>> Johanna's example of Holmes deducing something or other illustrates how
>> tricky the pair of words is. On the one hand, he brings together a set
>> of facts and induces therefrom a conclusion as in 'I see, my dear fellow,
>> from your rough hands, your rasping cough, your wheezing and the coal
>> dust in your eyes that you are a miner.' On the other hand, stretching
>> it a bit, I suppose one could say that Holmes has a set of rules of thumb
>> such as 'rough hands come from manual work' and 'a rasping cough and
>> wheezing' is a symptom of miners. He then applies them to the facts
>> before his eyes and ears and draws together the conclusions from which he
>> induces...Then again, maybe he deduces...
>>
>> This is probably why in applied linguistics the terms 'implicit' and
>> 'explicit' have replaced the troublesome pair.
>>
>> Ron Sheen
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>>
>>
>
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