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Inductive and Deductive Reasoning

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Deduction

Deduction: In the process of deduction, you begin with some statements, called 'premises', that are assumed to be true, you then determine what else would have to be true if the premises are true. For example, you can begin by assuming that God exists, and is good, and then determine what would logically follow from such an assumption. You can begin by assuming that if you think, then you must exist, and work from there. In mathematics, you can also start will a premise and begin to prove other equations or other premises. With deduction you can provide absolute proof of your conclusions, given that your premises are correct. The premises themselves, however, remain unproven and unprovable, they must be accepted on face value, or by faith, or for the purpose of exploration. 1

Examples of deductive logic:

All men are mortal. Joe is a man. Therefore Joe is mortal. If the first two statements are true, then the conclusion must be true. 2

Bachelor's are unmarried men. Bill is unmarried. Therefore, Bill is a bachelor. 3

To get a Bachelor's degree at Utah Sate University, a student must have 120 credits. Sally has more than 130 credits. Therefore, Sally has a bachelor's degree.

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Induction

Induction: In the process of induction, you begin with some data, and then determine what general conclusion(s) can logically be derived from those data. In other words, you determine what theory or theories could explain the data. For example, you note that the probability of becoming schizophrenic is greatly increased if at least one parent is schizophrenic, and from that you conclude that schizophrenia may be inherited. That is certainly a reasonable hypothesis given the data. However, induction does not prove that the theory is correct. There are often alternative theories that are also supported by the data. For...