TFY Chapter11. Summary and Mindmap

Chapter11. Inductive Reasoning and Inductive Fallacies:

How Do I Reason from Evidence?
Inductive reasoning is important to have in argument because it allows you to be aware of patterns going on in a situation. Although this pattern may happen almost every time it is important to be able to distinguish it between facts. Inductive reasoning can help strengthen your argument because a lot of times it is taken almost as being factual so it is a good basis to have. Fallacies are what brings an argument down because it is pattern of reasoning witch is usually wrong. This because of the way the argument is structured which is incorrect for one reason or another. It may be incorrect because the statements may be false or it may be incorrect simply because of where the premise and conclusions are setup.

Thinking for Yourself Chapter 11 Exercises Page 303
1. Induction : Is an argument the truth of whose premises would not serve to guarantee the truth of its conclusion, yet would provide some evidence for it. Sometimes said to be "inductively but not deductively valid".

2. Reasoning : Is the act of using reason to derive a conclusion from certain premises. There are two main methods to reach a conclusion. One is deductive reasoning, in which given true premises, the conclusion must follow (the conclusion cannot be false). This sort of reasoning is non-ampliative - it does not increase one's knowledge base, since the conclusion is self-contained in the premises. A classical example of deductive reasoning are syllogism.

3. Empirical : Refers to that which is based on observation or experience rather than on theory.

4. Scientific methods : Is a body of techniques for investigating phenomena and acquiring new knowledge, as well as for correcting and integrating previous knowledge. It is based on gathering observable, empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning, the collection of data through observation and experimentation, and the formulation and testing of hypotheses.

5. Inductive reasoning : A type of type of mathematical reasoning which involves observing patterns and using those observations to make generalizations.