Article View: comp.ai
Article #8323Re: abduction vs. induction
From: R.
Date: Fri, 19 May 1989 01:53
Date: Fri, 19 May 1989 01:53
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1484 bytes
In article <14820@paris.ics.uci.edu> Wendy Sarrett writes:
<>"induction" is the process of generalizing from lots of examples. For
<>example, suppose you see a number of examples of ducks and they are
<>all grey ( isa-duck -> grey) then you would conclude for all ducks,
<>isa-duck -> grey. Note that there is also induction in mathematics
<>where if you can show (where A is a set) (1 in A) and (n in A) -> (n+1
<>in A) then you can conclude for all n, n in A.
<>Note that both "abduction" and "induction" are not "safe" forms of
<>inference as "deduction" is. (i.e. you can't be 100% certain your
<>inference is correct)
Clearly the first form of induction given is not a logically valid
deduction. I am surprised to here that the SECOND isn't, since MANY
mathematical proofs rest upon it. Have I perhaps misunderstood your
assertion?
R.
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Ray Tigg | Cognos Incorporated
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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!dciem!nrcaer!sce!cognos!rayt From: rayt@cognos.UUCP (R.) Newsgroups: comp.ai,sci.logic Subject: Re: abduction vs. induction Message-ID: <6144@cognos.UUCP> Date: 19 May 89 01:53:06 GMT References: <1480@crin.crin.fr <14820@paris.ics.uci.edu> Reply-To: rayt@cognos.UUCP (R.) Followup-To: comp.ai Organization: Cognos Inc., Ottawa, Canada Lines: 24