Inductive Reasoning

We may construe the courses which she has so far taken as a subset of all the courses she will take. This argument predictsfuture occurrences on the basis of past occurrences.Example 4None of the IB students interviewed thought that final exams were very well scheduled. Hence, no IB student thinks thatfinal exams are very well scheduled.0% of interviewed S are ETherefore, 0% of all S are ELike the previous, this argument has a conclusion which is a generalization about all the members of a particular class basedon a sample of the class. This is the general feature of all instances of induction by enumeration.We can generalize the above four arguments forms as follows (using “observed” to represent adjectives like ‘sampled’,‘polled’, and ‘interviewed,’):Y% of observed A are BTherefore, Y% of all A are B(where Y is equal to or greater than 0 and equal to or less than 100)The Statistical SyllogismHere we draw conclusions about a particular member of a class, based on information about all members of the class.Example 180% of the chickens on this farm are grade A. Since Gobble Neck is a chicken on this farm, Gobble Neck is grade A.80% of all C are AM is CTherefore, M is AExample 2Most of the remarks made by Sui are insulting. The next remark made will be insulting because Sui will make the remark.*“Most” is understood as ‘more than half’. And so it is more likely than not that the next remark will be insulting.More than half of all S are IN is STherefore, N is IExample 360,000 of the tickets in the drum were purchased by people from Michigan, 15,000 of the tickets were purchased by peoplefrom Canada, and 5000 of the tickets were purchased by people from Ohio. The million-dollar ticket will be drawn from thedrum. Hence, the million-dollar ticket was purchased by someone from Michigan.(T = tickets in the drum; M = tickets by people from Michigan; D = million-dollar ticket)