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Saturday, May 10, 04:33:41pm

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Subject: you know... Author: Damoclese [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] Date Posted: 04/ 8/04 7:56am In reply to: Baz 's message, "Deduction" on 03/12/04 4:22pm I've been thinking this article over and I've come to a conclusion that is a bit startling at first glance. There is no such thing as deduction. There are senses which percieve patterns which lead to inductions which lead to things being imaginatively inductive and then to arguments that allow us to choose among various inductions, but deductive I think is non-existent. The premises deductive arguments rest on are mere inductions such as "all x are y". They are either mirroring reality, or they are imagined to be true, but either way, they are inductions about the way something is or could be. Then a second premise comes along that says "all y are p". Another induction! Either this is imagined to be true or is a statement about reality. Then some conclusion is drawn "all x are p" An induction built upon inductions. How do you go about proving induction? Well, since that would require a deductive argument and since no such thing exists you can't. Humans are built to survive. They aren't built to know things like the ultimate constituents of reality. It simply isn't important that we do know what's going on with absolute certainty, and so we don't. We do surive exceedingly well, and induction is the means by which we have. That isn't to say deduction isn't useful, it just isn't all it's cracked up to be. [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]