Deductive and inductive reasoning / Tom Chatfield.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Chatfield, Tom, 1980- author.

Series:

Student success.

SAGE skills: Student success

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Induction (Logic).

Logic.

Physical Description:

1 online resource : illustrations.

Place of Publication:

Los Angeles, CA : SAGE Publications, Inc., 2022.

Summary:

This Skill looks at the ways in which two different types of reasoning can successfully be used to support an argument's conclusion: deductive reasoning, which sets out to derive a conclusion from premises on the basis of logic, and inductive reasoning, which sets out to derive a conclusion from premises on the basis of patterns and likelihood. Starting with deduction, we will look at the ways in which deducing a conclusion from premises means knowing the difference between valid and invalid forms of argument. In a valid argument, a conclusion follows logically and inevitably from its premises, such that - if the premises are true - the conclusion must also be true. In an invalid form of argument, by contrast, a flaw in the way the argument is constructed means that its conclusion does not follow logically from its premises. Importantly, a valid argument is not necessarily true: that is, logic by itself is not the same thing as truth. We'll look at the ways in which perfectly logical deductions based upon incorrect premises can lead to incorrect conclusions - and some of the dangers that come with looking only at the logic of arguments, as opposed to testing the truth of their premises. When an argument is both valid and its premises are true, it's known as a sound argument: in this case, its conclusion must be true. As we'll see, however, coming up with a sound argument is far harder in practice than it might appear in theory - and it's important not to be seduced by the appeal of a logical-seeming argument that doesn't accurately describe the way ...

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on: online resource; title from PDF title page (SAGE, viewed December 26, 2022).

ISBN:

1-0718-8111-6

9781071881118

OCLC:

1309012990