past paper, June 2013, reason and experience

Illustrating your answer, explain the difference between deductive and inductive arguments. (15 marks)

Induction and deduction are types of reasoning that we use to gain knowledge. A deductive argument is an argument in which the conclusion logically follows the premises. They generally follow the structure: If A, and B, therefore C. A deductive argument is absolutely certain, as long as the premises are true. An example of a deductive argument is the following: Socrates is a man, and all men are mortal, therefore Socrates is mortal.

We can contrast this argument with the following: It rained today, and it rained yesterday, and it rained every day before, therefore it will rain tomorrow. This is an inductive argument, meaning that the conclusion doesn't logically follow the premises. Hume wrote that induction is probability-based reasoning, founded on our experience. The example above concludes from our previous experience of rain falling that it will likely to rain tomorrow as well. Induction cannot be certain, as no matter how sure I am that it will rain tomorrow it is possible that I will be proved wrong. Even if the probability of the conclusion being false is extremely minute, such as the sun rising tomorrow, it is still not certain to be true.

Descartes believed that we use a thing called 'rational intuition' - he believed this allows us to determine truth just by thinking about the premises of an argument, which is how we know the difference between inductive and deductive arguments when presented with them.