Some Problems of Inductive Logic

Abstract

A traditional way of discussing inductive logic is through contrast with deductive logic. More recently, many philosophers have discussed inductive logic in a more autonomous fashion by constructing various formal systems tailored to fit what their craftsmen have seen as repeatable forms of inductive inference. Many of these forms have displayed no obvious analogy to patterns of deductive inference. I think that failure to think through the relationship of deductive and inductive logic by plunging immediately into topics of confirmation and probabilistic inference is philosophically disastrous. In this paper I want to discuss analogies between deductive logic and inductive logic once more. It will be my contention that close attention to a suitable analogy can demonstrate that much philosophical work on induction has arisen from a mistaken attempt to formalize some essentially intuitive features of inductive reasoning.