Main Instructor

LPS/PHILOS 31: Introduction to Inductive Logic (Winter 2023, Summer 2024)

Inductive reasoning involves inferring conclusions that are uncertain. Most reasoning in science and everyday life is of this kind, though it often fails. Philosophy, through the branch of inductive logic, has tools that help us reason better and simultaneously explain the scientific method at a very general level.

By the end of the course, students will: understand how inductive reasoning is used in science and everyday life; be able to distinguish between inductive and deductive reasoning and their formalizations; recognize some skeptical arguments regarding what we can know from inductive reasoning; become familiar with some cognitive biases; and acquire the fundamentals of probability theory and its application to reasoning.

Some video lectures from the summer course can be found at the following YouTube channel: @AnalyticLens

Teaching Assistant

• Introduction to Inductive Logic (LPS/PHILOS 31)

• Philosophy of the Sciences of Sex and Gender (LPS/PHILOS 91)

• Knowledge: A User’s Guide - Honors (SOC SCI H1G)

• Global Economy (ECON 13)

• Introduction to Microeconomics (ECON 20A)

• American Culture: Media and Social Problems (SOC SCI 172AW)

• Liberalism and Conservatism (POL SCI 139)

• Supreme Court (POL SCI 174C)