Surely you want to know or they have given you a task on this topic: How to differentiate inductive reasoning and deductive reasoning.
Both the deductive and the inductive are reasoning methods, but they have different characteristics and are widely applied in scientific research and philosophy. The only thing that we could say that these two types of reasoning do share is that they start from logical processes and analytical thoughts. Either of the two methods can be used according to the needs of the investigation.
We can say that one of the main differences is that the inductive is based on the fact and the consequences that happen, this type of reasoning goes from the particular to the general, while the deductive is the details of the fact, what can happen after that the event occurs is like a conjecture, in this case it goes from the general to the particular.
Example of inductive reasoning: Pepe drinks a liter of whiskey and gets drunk (premise 1); Pepe drinks a liter of vodka and gets drunk (premise 2); Pepe drinks a liter of rum and gets drunk (premise 3); therefore excess alcohol makes you drunk (conclusion).
Inductive reasoning example 2: My math teacher is very serious and short, my cousin’s is too, so all math teachers are short and serious.
Example of deductive reasoning: dogs have 4 legs (major premise); Lupita is a dog (minor premise); therefore Lupita has four legs (Conclusion).
Example of deductive reasoning 2: my dad never lies, yesterday he told me that he flew, so since he never lies, what he said is true.
We will see their differences in more detail below, so that they are more clear to you.
What do you need to differentiate inductive reasoning and deductive reasoning?
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Instructions to differentiate inductive reasoning and deductive reasoning
- Inductive reasoning: this reasoning is based on logic, you can get to have this thought through very clear events or examples. When working with this reasoning, it is done from very specific examples, which can turn out to be true or false, to later be transferred to generalized concepts. As an example: Mauricio and Pedro are on the volleyball team at their school, they are both quite tall, we could say, using inductive reasoning, that everyone who is on the school volleyball team must be tall, but this may or may not turn out to be true. This inductive reasoning is also criticized; those who do it are based on saying that it is not precise and that generalizations are made that come from very few unspecified examples. If we look at history, the well-known Isaac Newton was a scientist who used inductive reasoning; He remembers that he observed the movements of the planets very well and, likewise, he noticed how an apple fell from the tree without anything stopping it, which made him think that there was a force that was the cause of things working that way. The method can be criticized for not being very precise, but thanks to this, science has made progress, since it is an excellent point to start research, to check if the assumption is true or false.
- Deductive reasoning: this type of reasoning takes generalized concepts in order to arrive at more specific ones; When investigations are based on this method, they take an idea that is generalized and begin to dismember it until they arrive at an example that is more specific. In other words, as its name indicates, conclusions are deduced from an already existing theory or fact. This type of reasoning tells us, for example, that if all the statements are true, the last one will also be true. By way of example: A: All mammals feed on mother’s milk at birth. B: A cow is a mammal. C: Therefore the cow also feeds on mother’s milk at birth. In this theory we can see that the generalized point is that all mammals feed on milk at birth, from there an example of these animals is taken, which is the cow, and ensures that the cow is fed with mother’s milk at birth. All this does not mean that the final conclusion is always true, because it can also be wrong, everything will depend on whether the generalized theory is true or not. Another example of deductive reasoning is the syllogisms used in mathematics. If B is equal to C (B=C) and if C is equal to D (C=D) then we will have that B is equal to D (B=D).
Tips for Differentiating Inductive Reasoning and Deductive Reasoning
- Most of us have inductive thoughts, with the prejudices that we have in our heads; We are used to affirming things from particular events whether they are true or not.