ALS461 Inductive Reasoning

How many PATTERNS are there that we can use to identify INDUCTIVE ARGUMENTS?

• 1

• 2

• 3

• 4

"No rabbit Alan has come across has tried to attack him.

So, most rabbits are not inclined to attack human beings."

Is this a strong inductive generalization?

• Yes

• No

What does it mean by a COGENT ARGUMENT?

• has all most likely true premises and weak support for its conclusion.

• has all wrong premises and does not supply strong support for its conclusion.

• has all true premises and supplies strong support for its conclusion.

• - Are the premises true?

• - Is the sample large enough?

• - Is the sample representative?

These are the 3 questions that we must use to evaluate ____________ ?

• Inductive Reasoning

• Inductive Generalizations

• Hasty Generalizations

• Deductive Arguments

Inductive generalization is an argument that uses evidence about a limited number of people or things of a certain type, to make a claim about a larger group of people or things of that type, the population as a whole.

• True

• False

Is this an example of a strong statistical argument?

- 85% of students in UiTM Shah Alam play sports.

- ⁠Maria is a UiTM Shah Alam student.

- ⁠So, Maria probably plays sport.

• False

• True

Why is it important to use a specific reference class in a statistical argument?

• Improves the strength and accuracy of the argument

• Makes the argument sound more formal

• Guarantees the conclusion is true

• Helps to avoid using inductive reasoning

Which analogy best explains an argument from analogy?

• if apples and potatoes are both foods, potatoes must taste sweet like apples too.

• if apples and oranges are both fruits, and apples grow on trees, oranges probably grow on trees too.

• ⁠apples are fruits, and oranges are fruits, so they must have the same colors.

• ⁠if apples and grapes are both round, grapes must grow on trees like apples too.

Which step is NOT part of constructing an argument by analogy?

• ⁠ensuring that the shared characteristics are relevant to the conclusion

• ⁠inferring another similarity based on the shared characteristics

• ⁠identifying shared characteristics between two items

• providing that the conclusion is guaranteed to be true.

What is the general form of an argument from analogy?

• A and B share characteristic X. A has characteristic Y. So, B probably has characteristic Y.

• ⁠A and B are different. A has characteristic X. So, B must have characteristic X.

• A has characteristic X and Y. So, B must have characteristic X and Y.

• ⁠A and B share characteristic Y. B has characteristic X. So, A must have characteristic X.