Xref: utzoo comp.ai:4122 sci.logic:431
Path: utzoo!dciem!nrcaer!sce!cognos!rayt
From: rayt@cognos.UUCP (R.)
Newsgroups: comp.ai,sci.logic
Subject: Re: abduction vs. induction
Message-ID: <6144@cognos.UUCP>
Date: 19 May 89 01:53:06 GMT
References: <1480@crin.crin.fr <14820@paris.ics.uci.edu>
Reply-To: rayt@cognos.UUCP (R.)
Followup-To: comp.ai
Organization: Cognos Inc., Ottawa, Canada
Lines: 24

In article <14820@paris.ics.uci.edu> Wendy Sarrett writes:
 
<>"induction" is the process of generalizing from lots of examples. For
<>example, suppose you see a number of examples of ducks and they are
<>all grey ( isa-duck -> grey) then you would conclude for all ducks,
<>isa-duck -> grey.  Note that there is also induction in mathematics
<>where if you can show (where A is a set) (1 in A) and (n in A) -> (n+1
<>in A) then you can conclude for all n, n in A.
 
<>Note that both "abduction" and "induction" are not "safe" forms of
<>inference as "deduction" is. (i.e. you can't be 100% certain your
<>inference is correct)

Clearly the first form of induction given is not a logically valid
deduction. I am surprised to here that the SECOND isn't, since MANY
mathematical proofs rest upon it. Have I perhaps misunderstood your
assertion?

						R.
-- 
Ray Tigg                          |  Cognos Incorporated
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