Inductive Reasoning

According to Kirby, Goodpastor and Levine (2000), creative thought, along with, inductive and deductive logic comprise the bedrock and substance to all our thinking.
Inductive thinking also known as the “bottom up� approach, moves from particular observations to a more generalized theory or conclusion, it detects patterns and regularities; as well as, it helps to formulate tenetative hypothesis, from which we derive our generalized theory or conclusion. For example, if we see 100 cats, all with a different colored coat, we could conclude that all cats have some type of coat, right? Wrong, there is such a thing as a sphynx; which is hairless. This intern becomes an error in reasoning also known as a fallacy.
“Some philosophers, such as the skeptic David Hume, argue that there is no absolutely sound inductive argument”, but we do have good practical inductive arguments based on repeated, accurate observations. The following would be and example given by Kirby Goodpastor and Levine (1999) of a sound inductive argument. “Every day I notice that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Though I’ll be dead in one hundred years, I know that my grandchildren will also see the sun rise in

e in the east and set in the west.” There is a good chance that the grandchildren will make this observation predicted; although, with inductive thinking there is always the possibility that the argument might be false, for they are statements of probability not certainty.

Second, we have the hypothetical syllogism in which two premises and a conclusion are hypothetical or conditional, also known as the “if-then” form. An example of such would be, “If you don’t eat your dinner, then you may not have a dessert.” As stated by Goodpastor and Levine (1999) “Much of our everyday life is hypothetical.”

In other words, deductive thinking moves from the more general to the more specific. Sometimes this is informally called the “top down” approach. Deductive thinking starts with a theory, we then narrow down to a hypothesis, which eventually leads us to specific data. This allows us to prove or disprove our original theory.