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Andrew and Kevin Are Studying For Their Upcoming Speech Final
Andrew and Kevin Are Studying For Their Upcoming Speech Final
Inductive Reasoning
Inductive reasoning is reasoning where the premises support the conclusion. The conclusion is the
hypothesis, or probable. This means that the conclusion is the part of reasoning that inductive
reasoning is trying to prove. Inductive reasoning is also referred to as 'cause and effect reasoning' or
'bottom-up reasoning' because it seeks to prove a conclusion first. This is usually derived from
specific instances to develop a general conclusion.
Kevin and Andrew are now arguing about math. Kevin says that all big brothers are good at math.
Andrew is an only child, but he's pretty sure that this argument cannot be valid.
Kevin makes a conclusion based on the following premises: 'My older brother is good at math. My
friend's older brother is good at math. My neighbor's big brother is a math tutor. Therefore, all older
brothers are good at math.'
You've probably heard people use this type of reasoning in life. We know this can't be true. You
probably know that being an older brother doesn't inherently make you good at math. What Kevin
has done is made a generalized conclusion: all older brothers are good at math based on three
premises of specific instances: Mine, my friend's and my neighbor's older brother are all good at
math. These specific instances are not representative of the entire population of older brothers.
Because inductive reasoning is based on specific instances, it can often produce weak and invalid
arguments.
You can remember inductive reasoning like this: inductive reasoning is bottom-up reasoning; it starts
with a probable conclusion and induces premises.
Now let's talk about deductive reasoning.
Deductive reasoning: taking some set of data or some set of facts and using these facts to deduce other
facts that you know are true.