SSH 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Enumerative Induction, Inductive Reasoning, John Stuart Mill

• School: Ryerson University
• Department: Social Sciences and Humanities
• Course: SSH 100
• Professor: David Stamos

Document Summary

Begin with observations about some members of the group and end with a generalization about all of them. X percent of the observed member of group a have property p. therefore, x percent of all the members of group a probably have property p. Target group: the whole collection of individuals under study. Property in question: the property (p) the argument is focused on. Examine all the language all, most, probably. A simple change of wording can change and argument from strong to weak and vice versa. Examine the sample size: (cid:449)he(cid:374) it"s too s(cid:373)all; hasty ge(cid:374)eralizatio(cid:374) Good rule of thumb: the more homogeneous a target group is in traits relevant to the property in question, the smaller the sample can be; the less homogeneous, the larger the sample should be. Examine whether the sample is representative ((cid:449)he(cid:374) it"s u(cid:374)represe(cid:374)tati(cid:448)e; hasty generalization) Selective attention: we tend to observe what supports our conclusions, ignore what does.