Reply #38: logic [View All]

You have it backwards. Inductive reasoning is the scientific method--gathering all possible samples, testing them for some specific criteria, and forming a conclusion. Obviously, gathering all possible examples is pretty difficult. More often, a person sets out to disprove a conclusion through the exception disproves the theory. Deductive reasoning involves starting with a positively true major premise and applying it to a specific example. Consider the famous example: All men die; Socrates is a man; therefore, Socrates will die. The major premise here seems unassailable until you apply the Christian doctrine that Jesus didn't really die. You could change the syllogism by asserting that Jesus was not a man and the basic premise holds, except Christians claim Jesus was both man and god. Anyway, I would say, were I to make such an iffy generalization, that ideologues apply the deductive method--they start with, usually, a faulty basic premise such as "All murder is wrong" but violate their own basic premise by advocating the death penalty and war. And, naturally, you can see why ideologues generally abhor the scientific method. But notice that, even here, I have to qualify my premise by saying "generally."