Inductivism

Inductivism is the view that scientific theories are developed or justified by generalizing from observations and experimental results.

Inductive reasoning: Reasoning that uses particular cases or premises to support a broader conclusion that is not guaranteed by them. It names the inference from observed cases to scientific generalizations.
Falsificationism: Karl Popper’s view that scientific theories must make testable predictions that could conflict with observations. It contrasts with inductivism by emphasizing attempted refutation rather than confirmation through accumulated cases.
Francis Bacon: An English philosopher who advocated systematic observation and controlled investigation as foundations for natural knowledge. His program helped establish the early modern ideal of building knowledge from observations.
Statistical inference: The use of data and probability models to draw conclusions about populations or processes. It formalizes generalization from sampled observations while quantifying uncertainty.
Logical positivism: A twentieth-century philosophical movement that sought to connect meaningful claims with logic and empirical verification. Its verificationist program inherited the ambition to ground scientific knowledge in experience.
Induction problem: The philosophical problem of justifying inferences from past observations to unobserved cases or future events. It challenges the move from observed regularities to laws expected to hold beyond them.
Hypothetico-deductive method: A method that derives testable consequences from hypotheses and compares them with observations. It presents testing as deduction from proposed theories, not their induction from observations.
John Stuart Mill: A nineteenth-century British philosopher who systematized methods for identifying causal relations from observed cases. His methods gave inductive inquiry a detailed account of causal discovery.
Scientific method: A family of systematic practices for developing, testing, and revising scientific explanations. Induction is one proposed account of how evidence functions within scientific inquiry.
Theory-ladenness: The thesis that observation and evidence are influenced by the concepts and theories used to interpret them. It weakens the picture of observations as a neutral foundation for inductive science.

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