The Rationality of Induction

by David Stove

Writing on the justification of certain inductive inferences, the author proposes that sometimes induction is justified and that arguments to prove otherwise are not cogent. In the first part he examines the problem of justifying induction, looks at some attempts to prove that it is justified, and responds to criticisms of these proofs. In the second part he deals with such topics as formal logic, deductive logic, the theory of logical probability, and probability and truth.

Genres: Philosophy

250 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1986

About the author

David Charles Stove was Australian philosopher and a widely published polemical journalist. His work in philosophy of science included criticisms of David Hume's inductive skepticism, as well as what he regarded as the irrationalism of Karl Popper, Thomas Kuhn, Imre Lakatos, and Paul Feyerabend. Stove was also a critic of Idealism and sociobiology, describing the latter as a new religion in which genes play the role of gods.