Inductive Reasoning
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[edit] Definition
Inductive Reasoning (as opposed to Deductive Reasoning) is the process of reasoning from many examples to a conclusion. Most practical reasoning, including science, makes extensive use of inductive reasoning in an effort to apply a of specific observations to cover new areas and applications.
For example, an observer might notice that all of the crows in a particular flock (technically, murder) are black, and from that try to infer a general proposition such as "Crows are black." Or, "the sun rises every morning, therefore it will rise tomorrow morning."
From a philosophical position, the problem of induction is that inductive reasoning, while often cogent, rational, and indeed compelling, can never lead to an absolutely valid conclusion. Although I have never seen nor heard of a blue crow, that is no guarantee that I will not find one on my front porch tomorrow.
A specific kind of induction, called mathematical induction, by contrast, is a legitimate and deductively valid method of proving statements about numbers or other objects capable of sequencing.
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