Monday, February 13, 2012

Inductive Argument that I recently used

As most of you know by reading chapter 7, inductive arguments are slightly stronger or weaker rather than true or false. Inductive arguments claim that their conclusion "probably" follows from the premises, but doesn't necessarily mean it’s true. In the past week I was in this situation where I used an inductive argument. When I was in class my teacher was talking about sports. The main topic was how sport players make a lot of money.  Our class was also talking about how most pro football players are rich and how they are treated like superstars. So my friend was sitting next to me and I whispered to him, “If most pro football players are rich, then my uncle must be full of cash”. So, Premise 1 is that most pro football players are rich and considered superstars. Premise 2 is that my uncle is a pro football player. The conclusion following premises 1&2 are that my uncle probably is rich and considered a superstar. The problem with this inductive argument is that it’s not necessarily true, it could easily be false. 

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