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social science subjects > social research > philosophy and the social sciences > philosophy of science > induction and confirmation
... > social science subjects > business and management > organization studies > organization studies encyc > philosophy of organizations > philosophy of science > induction and confirmation
... > social science subjects > sociology > anthropology > research/theoretical frameworks > philosophy of science > induction and confirmation

Preferred term

induction and confirmation  

Definition

  • The Problem of Induction As David Hume observed, first in his Treatise on Human Nature (1739) and then, more succinctly, in the Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748), there is no contradiction in thinking that the future will be unlike the past in any way one cares to specify or in thinking that unobserved features of the world may behave very differently than those observed. But what philosophers call “the problem of induction” runs, as Hume himself made clear, much deeper than the mere failure of past history to logically entail any consequence about the future and the unobserved. [Source: Encyclopedia of Philosophy and the Social Sciences; Induction and Confirmation]

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https://concepts.sagepub.com/social-science/concept/induction_and_confirmation

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