Deductive reasoning
"In deductive arguments, the truth of the argument is assured by the truth of the premises. In fact, the conclusion is often just a restatement of the information found in the premises. As Kelley suggests, the conclusion simply makes explicit the information implicit in the premises. If those premises are true, they guarantee the truth of the conclusion. It would be impossible for the conclusion to be false. Deductive arguments are inflexible. They're either valid, or they're invalid. Deductive reasoning is often described as a movement from general statements to specific conclusions. We still have the idea that the truth of the general statements guarantees the truth of the conclusion."
Types of deductive argument
"There are three of the main types of argument structures that when followed will produce a valid deductive argument. They are the categorical, hypothetical, and disjunctive structures."
Inductive reasoning
"An inductive argument, as Rainbolt & Dwyer suggest, claims that the truth of the premises show that the conclusion is likely to be true. The key difference is the conclusion to an inductive argument might still be false, even if all the premises are true. Thus, this kind of reasoning relies on showing the probability of an argument being true. Inductive arguments are for when you want to convince people using probabilities or likelihood of something being the case. "
Abductive reasoning
"According to Douven, it is inference to the best explanation. Abductive reasoning relies on the best explanation for a series of events. This best explanation is often the explanation that requires the least amount of assumptions. Abductive arguments are for when you think there is a logical conclusion, even though you may not have all the facts.
Inductive and abductive reasoning is generally regarded as reasoning that moves from specific observations to general conclusions."
SOURCE
https://www.coursera.org/lecture/critical-thinking-skills/3-3a-forms-of-reasoning-3Cjgr
VOCABULARY
deductive [dɪˈdʌktɪv]
inductive [ɪnˈdʌktɪv]
abductive
hypothesis [haɪˈpɒθɪsɪs]
cornerstone [ˈkɔːnəstəʊn]