2 Inductive and Deductive Reasoning I Classification of Living Things: Form and

Question

2 Inductive and Deductive Reasoning I Classification of Living Things: Form and Structure You have leamed that science is a logical method of considering reality. Since we deal with real- r waking lives, science is important as a means of ordering and making sense of the nat- ural world around us. The basic method of science is generalization, or induction. This is the process of observing the world and seeking patterns. Induction draws inferences about a whole class from a few of its members; it makes generalizations tying together various related facts. For example, when a zoologist describes a new animal, he will be interested not only in the char- acteristics of the individual specimens he observed but also in those properties he has reason to believe are shared by all other individuals of the same species. Thus a freckle on one animal but not on the others would not be considered significant but the number of legs and the shapes of the anten- nae and wings would be used to make up a generalized description of all animals of that species A composite of a particular length of dress, a particular line, and a particular collar might together describe a new style in women's clothing. To describe a fabric or a button would not be adequate to bring to mind a certain mode of dress, but the combination of several pertinent characteristics would serve as a general description. The method of reasoning that builds facts into a generalization is called induction or inductive reasoning. Deduction, on the other hand, proceeds from a known generalization and allows the prediction of some previously unknown facts or events. Prediction (deduction) requires that a generalization has already been estab all plants that have true roots, stems, and leaves, and bear covered seeds, would lead us to predict that a newly discovered plant with those characteristics would also have flowers-even if none are visible on the specimens shown to us. We have deduced that these plants must have flowers. that flowers are characteristically found on Deductions are predictions based on established inductions. Sherlock Holmes, the great fictional detective, was always able to get the criminal by predict- ing the villain's actions on the basis of Holmes' huge store of "laws of human behavior," that were nothing more than generalizations about the way people behave. Ordinarily it is impossible to examine every member of a large group of objects or ideas. You cannot examine every suit in the store, every corpuscle in the body, or every bluefin tuna in the ocean. Consequently, induction is ordinarily based on a part (sample) of the whole group. This leads to the problem of selecting a representative (unbiased) sample from the group, a subject which will be discussed later in this course or in a statistics course you might take at another time in col- lege. But clearly, we cannot make a valid generalization about the average height of adult males if we draw our sample from rosters of NBA players 21

Explanation / Answer

Please find the answers below:

Answer a: Inductive: Since this statement is a direct observation without any assumptions or experimentation and is derived from non-scientific procedures, it is inductive in nature.

Answer b: Deductive: As a general observation, common salt or sodium chloride along with other many types of salt are crystalline and white in color. Thus, a general inductive deduction is formed by most of the people that salts are white crystalline substances, hence the statement is deductive in nature.

Answer c: Inductive: The fact that the person might miss his train due to lack of time generates a spontaneous response in him to run as soon as he gets sense of time even when he did not watch or hear the train.

Answer d: Deductive : The fact that the person had experienced multiple episodes of similar kind made him deduce a general perception not to buy any products further from the same company.

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