Pragmatism

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how pragmatism has much to offer the student of induction. While pragmatism is far from a solution to the problem of induction, Hume's challenge still remains unsolved. Pragmatism attempts to use deductive reasoning to surmount the lack of a clear system for the operation of induction. In this example, the attempt fails. But the manner of failure will undoubtedly provide great opportunities for the next attempt to surmount the problem of induction.

From the Paper:

"Inductive reasoning is, in many ways, the hallmark of Western society since the Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution. Though inductive reasoning is not a mode of thought limited to Westerners, it is characteristic of the scientific thought that dominates Western rationality. The concept is deceptively simple: use preexisting knowledge about the world to draw conclusions about events that have not yet occurred. We all do this everyday. Inductive reasoning is the means by which every person uses existing information about the world to draw conclusions about what the world might be like. It is a form of logic that permits the individual to understand what might happen based solely on what he/she has experienced to have happened in the past or even the present."

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