How Induction Works

Strong inductive arguments share key features:

• Large sample size — 1,000 observations beat 5
• Representative sample — your evidence must cover the relevant range. A drug trial run only on young men may not hold for older women
• No counterexamples — a single exception can topple a confident rule
• Reasonable generalization — conclusions should not extend beyond the evidence

Every scientific "law" is technically an inductive generalization that could be overturned. Gravity has worked the same way in every observation we have made — but that is induction, not deduction.