Inductive Arguments

What are inductive arguments?

Inductive arguments claim that the conclusion probably follows the premises. use phrases sometimes like (probably, most likely, chances are it is reasonable)

Self selected sample:

Only the people most interested in the poll or survey participate

-‐ Correlations - positive:

The incidence of one event increases when the second one increases

‐ In what ways can polls be biased?

They are a generalization taken from a sample, polls are only a representation of the people that answered them, and those people can be a biased sample

When do we use inductive arguments?

We use them when the conclusion probably follows the premises. Whenever we have to extend what we already know to situations that are unfamiliar. Inductive logic is based on probability, so there is always the possibility for error.

Causal arguments:

a cause is an event that brings about change or an effect. In a causal argument something is claimed as the cause of something else. ex: Premise 1 (cause)-youre eating french fries every day- and Premise 2 (cause)-you don't exercise Conclusion (effect)-youre going to gain weight if you don't change yo

Random sample:

every member of the population has equal chance of being selected

Generalizations:

generalizations are used to draw a conclusion about a certain characteristic or group or population based on a sample or population. pretty much inductive reasoning but about a group of people

Three types of inductive arguments

generalizations, analogies, & causal arguments

-‐ Correlations - negative:

occurrence of one event increases as the other decreases

Sampling strategies:

representative sample: Self selected sample: Random sample:

representative sample:

sample is similar to larger population, often achieved through random sampling

Sampling & sampling strategies:

sampling is selecting some members of a group and making generalizations about the whole population on the basis of their characteristics

-‐ Establishing causal relationships:

some are well established relationships are less clear when events are ongoing or repeating, and it can be hard to tell which came first.