Let us contrast it with Deductive argument. In this the questioner's
procedure is to procure the admission of a general proposition with a
view to forcing the admission of a particular conclusion which is in
dispute. In Inductive argument, on the other hand, it is a general
proposition that is in dispute, and the procedure is to obtain the
admission of particular cases with a view to forcing the admission of
this general proposition.
Let the question be whether All horned animals ruminate. You engage to
make an opponent admit this. How do you proceed? You ask him whether
he admits it about the various species. Does the ox ruminate? The
sheep? The goat? And so on. The bringing in of the various particulars
is the induction ([Greek: epagoge]).
When is this inductive argument complete? When is the opponent bound
to admit that all horned animals ruminate? Obviously, when he has
admitted it about every one. He must admit that he has admitted it
about every one, in other words, that the particulars enumerated
constitute the whole, before he can be held bound in consistency to
admit it about the whole.
The condition of the validity of this argument is ultimately the
same with that of Deductive argument, the identity for purposes of
predication of a generic whole with the sum of its constituent parts.
The Axiom of Inductive Argument is, _What is predicated of every one
of the parts is predicable of the whole._ This is the simple converse
of the Axiom of Deductive argument, the _Dictum de Omni_, "What is
predicated of the whole is predicable about every one of the parts".
The Axiom is simply convertible because for purposes of predication
generic whole and specific or individual parts taken all together are
identical.
Practically in inductive argument an opponent is worsted when he
cannot produce an instance to the contrary. Suppose he admits the
predicate in question to be true of this, that and the other, but
denies that this, that and the other constitute the whole class in
question, he is defeated in common judgement if he cannot instance
a member of the class about which the predicate does not hold. Hence
this mode of induction became technically known as _Inductio per
enumerationem simplicem ubi non reperitur instantia contradictoria_.
When this phrase is applied to a generalisation of fact, Nature or
Experience is put figuratively in the position of a Respondent unable
to contradict the inquirer.
Such in plain language is the whole doctrine of Inductive Argument.
Aristotle's Inductive Syllogism is, in effect, an expression of this
simple doctrine tortuously in terms of the Deductive Syllogism. The
great master was so enamoured of his prime invention that he desired
to impress its form upon everything: otherwise, there was no reason
for expressing the process of Induction syllogistically. Here is his
description of the Inductive Syllogism:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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