Want to Conclude Your Observations?

The famous phrase, no man is an island, may blind one to the complex fusion of assumptions and conclusions given most solid substance herein by the fervent faith and poetic power of their author. He "speaks" to us with conviction that stirs us by the vast scope of its vision. From the beginning, when the first questions the import of the bell's tolling, he is led - and through the powerful connotations of his language lead us - from one intuitive discovery of meaning to another.

He sees and feels and discover, guesses, and concludes all at one and the same time. By his genius and art he also enables us to share that rich experience of mixed realizations leading to the conclusion that in living and dying all mankind are one because of their Christian immortality. Some modern readers may consider this persuasive essay as being too emotional, but they can hardly deny the genuineness of the poetic conviction that gave it utterance. ( example : ... one day)

But let us now return to separating the inseparable in order to see just how induction is the opposite of deduction. Deductive, thought we know, begins with the general and goes to the particular. For example, if we assume that freshmen are likely to have times when they feel discouraged about collage, we may conclude on seeing Mary, a freshman, looking down at the mouth, that Mary likely be discouraged about something related to the collage life as a freshman. We have jump from all freshmen; whether the conclusion is justifiable in fact is another matter, but the logic is correct.

Turn the situation about. You are a freshman newly arrived in campus. After a series of mishaps continuing through the first two months or more of classes and campus life, you feel very much discouraged and blame yourself. The, to your relief, you learn from talking to other like yourself that particularly everyone else is in the same boat. Through induction your conclude: All freshmen are likely to feel discouraged at times.

Take a more complex example of inductive thinking, mixed of course, with deduction. A psychologist, curious about what makes some dogs of the same breed better pets than others, work out a method that he hopes will lead to some general conclusion. He will observe a large number of litters and record everything he notes about their behavior during ten minute period each day. He is on the watch for the kind of behavior called imprinting, which is the phenomenon of primary socialization. In oversimplified, he is trying to learn what makes puppies sociable. He records four groups of basic behavioral abilities: sensory, motor, social, and learning capacity. After many experiments, he finally arrives at the conclusion that the best time to adopt a puppy as a pet is when it is between six and eight weeks old. It also must have been reared in contact with human beings. This discovery is an inductive; it is a generalization from specific observations.

(** SA** )