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III

H o w t o E v a l u a t e

A r g u m e n t s : I n d u c t i v e

S t a n d a r d s

Previous chapters have been concerned primarily with deductive arguments

that aim at validity. Many arguments encountered in daily life, however, are not

intended to meet this standard of validity. They are only supposed to provide reasons

(perhaps very strong reasons) for their conclusions. Such arguments are called

inductive and will be the focus of Part III. This part begins with a discussion of

the nature of inductive standards and arguments followed by a survey of five forms

of inductive argument: statistical generalizations, statistical applications, inference

to the best explanation, arguments from analogy, and causal reasoning. The next

topic is probability, because, as we will see, the inductive standard of strength can be

understood in terms of probability. Part III will close by discussing how probabilities

get deployed in decision making.

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