The Problem of Induction - Part Two

[poovanna]

Introduction

Induction underlies science & much of what we think it means to be rational. Predictably when this notion gets punctured we get surprised that we're no better than the fundamentalist chumps we laugh at/feel sorry for :)

This post will present the other attempts to answer Hume's Riddle of Induction. I will not be giving the plot away by

Comments

[hardblue]

How about just a pragmatic justification? If induction cannot be an absulutely secure basis of knowledge, we can at least see that it is generally better than pure guesswork or even reliance on non-empirical, static texts (such as religious texts).

Pragmatic Justification

[poovanna]

A pragmatic justification of induction will not work. This is because:

- there are an infinite number of strategies (see the section on the Straight Rule); &
- language cannot be separated from experience (Goodman's riddle).