Determinism Dialogue

Determinism Dialogue

Philosophy 101

A: Hey, did you finish up the reading for philosophy today?

B: Yeah I did the reading, I agree with Hume.

A: I disagree with you and him I believe that inductive reasoning is rational.

B: Your going to have to demonstrate if this is justifiable or not to me.

A: Ok I can do that as well.

B: Well, before we get into this what exactly do you think that induction is?

A: It is a method of reasoning where the conclusion does not logically follow the original statement(s). The original statement will support the final conclusion in a looser fashion.

B: So what you are telling me is that the premises can be true and the conclusion can be false?

A: Yes, you are correct I am saying that. Induction is basically using past experiences as a guide so to speak for predicting future events.

B: How do you figure? I believe it is irrational and I also believe that I have a more valid point than you on this topic.

A: Ok but I am not done explaining induction to you yet. It can be used in two different ways.

B: Go on…

A: The first way is using past events to predict future events as I said a minute ago. An example of this is the sun rose a million years ago, it rose again a thousand years ago, it rose yesterday and we can use this information to assume that it will rise again tomorrow morning.

B: Alright and what is the second way?

A: The second way is using a particular event to conclude general event.

B: Do you have an example of this? Because I am still certain that I can prove that induction is irrational.

A: You may think that but one of the most important figure’s in science used inductive reasoning, and Galileo was a very rational person.

B: You do know that many philosophers said that inductive reasoning was not logical right?

A: It’s logical enough and it suits our needs.

B: But just because Galileo was a rational person does not mean that inductive reasoning is rational. If you think he is so...