Hume's Argument Against Inductive Reasoning

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In order to deconstruct Hume’s argument against inductive reasoning, it is essential to first define it and point out the points at which Hume had a problem. Inductive reasoning is any reasoning, sound or not, that is made from a series of premises that do not contain the conclusion explicitly. For example, if the premises to an argument were 1. It rained last winter 2. It rained the winter before that and 3. It rained even the year before that, then the conclusion born from inductive reasoning would be more than likely that 4. It will rain this winter. Of course, as with deductive reasoning, but actually, more so with inductive reasoning, by adding more data points or having stronger premises as in, for example, stating that it has rained …show more content…
The first objection to his stance is the fact that he does not present an adequate solution to which people can predict the outcomes of events from something as simple as driving a car to something more complex like studying behaviors. Deductive reasoning does not allow for predictions of anything because if deductive reasoning includes the conclusion in the premises or the demonstrations- which it does- there would be no way to predict, because it would have already happened. Furthermore, upon deeper analysis, there is no way to have a prediction in a deductive argument, no matter how strong or valid it is, because no matter how many data points (premises) presented to come to the predicative conclusion, there would be no absolute proof that the conclusion will come true. For example, taking the argument about rain, it is impossible to craft a deductive argument that logically follows. It is impossible to create a logical argument for that case even if it followed this 1. It rains in California but mainly in spring or winter. 2. It is raining now and it rained yesterday. 3. It is winter. So 4. It will rain tomorrow. Semantically, deductive reasoning cannot accommodate for any type of prediction although they are necessary for the world and acting in accordance with certain events. Forgetting the claim about rain, when making life choices, most often, there are no obvious demonstrative factors that can be composed in a deductive argument to convince a person to act one way or another. For example, if a person was trying to decide whether to, in an extreme example, kill someone, there would be no deductive argument to decide what would happen if he did other than the obvious that the person he killed would stop breathing
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