The Justification of Induction
David Hume presented the classic statement of the problem of
induction. In order for induction to be capable of giving us
knowledge, we must be able to show that induction is justified. We
could do this deductively or inductively, and these are the only
options. We cannot do it deductively, because inductive inferences
do not guarantee the truth of their conclusions, unlike
deductive inferences. We cannot do it inductively, because that
assumes what we are trying to prove.
Hence we can have no reason to believe any inductive inferences
at all.
Literature
The argument is given in Hume
1748, secs IV, V part I.
Solutions
Literature
There is an excellent summary of most of these positions in Lipton n.d..
There are a number of tempting responses to the problem which do
not touch it in the slightest.
Induction is justified because that is part of what justified
means.
No matter how bad induction is, all the alternatives are worse.
We do not use induction anyway.
Hume was using a bad definition of knowledge, and we can justify
induction given a better one.
Copyright David Chart 1997