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Inductivism and Probabilism

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Inference, Method and Decision

Part of the book series: Synthese Library ((SYLI,volume 115))

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Abstract

It is considered a truism that not all inferences are deductive. Arguments which compel assent, granted their premisses, are said to be limiting cases of the more general class of those whose premisses support their conclusions inconclusively. Such arguments are variously labelled ‘inductive’, ‘informative’, or ‘probable’. The conclusions of deductive arguments from true premisses are invariably true, while conclusions of probable arguments from true premisses are said to be ‘for the most part true’.1 One speaks also of ‘arguments by analogy’, ‘statistical syllogisms’, and the like — terms which further argue that induction and deduction are but two sides of the same inferential coin.

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© 1977 D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland

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Rosenkrantz, R.D. (1977). Inductivism and Probabilism. In: Inference, Method and Decision. Synthese Library, vol 115. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-1237-9_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-1237-9_3

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-90-277-0818-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-010-1237-9

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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