Unit 4.3: Inductive Generalization

let's get started with our first type of inductive inference namely inductive generalization also known as enumerative induction in an inductive generalization

not surprisingly we conclude with a generality consider this statement owls prey on mice we understand that there is a tacit quantifier in this statement

namely all it's saying that all owls prey on mice in an inductive generalization a statement such as this would function as the conclusion but how

would one provide support for such a conclusion there are two basic methods first we could support the conclusion with a single premise containing a non

universal generalization such as many many owls have been observed to prey on mice so therefore all owls prey on mice

secondly we could enumerate a large number of specific statements as premises such as al number one preys on mice owl number two preys on mice owl number three preys on preys on mice and

so on so all house prey on mice the first method which uses a non Universal generalization in the premises is a handy shortcut the second which

enumerates a series of specific statements is more complete and as a method often used in the sciences regardless of which method we choose they both lead to the same conclusion

all ours prey on mice finally you can clearly see the inferential leap we talked about earlier in both methods the conclusion

goes beyond the evidence supplied in the premises so it's non conclusive