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MadTeach got its name because I used to teach in Madison, WI, and that used to make me pretty mad...now I teach in a large city... totally different scene... but I'm keeping the name. :-)

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Sunday, March 13, 2005

deductive vs inductive reasoning

I was never clear on this. In case you're in the same spot:

Deductive

theory >> hypothesis >> test >> observation >> confirmation



Inductive

observation >> pattern >> tentative hypothesis >> exploration/testing >> theory

Some links:
  • Social Science Research Methods
  • Deductive/Inductive tutorial - a little more confusing but also more examples. Includes the comments that a deductive argument is proven with "reasons, examples, facts, and statistics," while an inductive argument is supported with "opinions, observations, experimentation, and explanations;" apparently "science is heavily based on inductive evidence."

posted by birdfarm @ 7:07 PM

1 Comments:

At 11:05 AM, Blogger birdfarm said...

Several months later, still thinking about this. First, I am surprised that science isn't *deductive,* but maybe that's the whole point--it's not infallible becaue it's not deductive--perhaps because you can't control all the variables. I am also thinking that maybe they don't mean "science," per se, because there are some things that must be definitive, such as chemistry (mix these two chemicals and they explode/turn pink/whatever). Other thoughts?

 

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