Cross-curricular project (1º Bachillerato)

This year we started a new initiative to help our pupils link the diverse subject matter that they study. In 1º Bachillerato the pupils completed a project that involved reading and research into another subject (economics, philisophy or physics) and writing the results in English, for assessment by both the English department and that of the other subject in question.

Cristina's essay, published below, was chosen by the teachers as the best one. It is a philisophy essay that deals with inductive reasoning.

-----

Inductive reasoning is the opposite of deductive reasoning. It is a scientific method and logical process that enables us to to move from individual instances to to general statements. It starts with specific observations and continues with the study of patterns or regularities to formulate hypotheses, which could develop into general theories. In other words, we go from the specific to the general.

It enables us to get closer to the truth, however, even if all the premises were true in a statement, the general conclusion could be false. This is why inductive reasoning is only used by scientists to form hypotheses and theories, while deductive reasoning allows them to test these theories or hypotheses.

Hume believes there is a conjunction between cause and effect, and that similar circumstances always produce similar effects. Nevertheless he does not agree with the common idea of a necessary connection between the cause and the effect.

Hume claims that even after we know from experience what the result was in a particular case, we cannot bring it under a general rule, or to predict similar cases in the future. For example, if all basketball players in my school were tall, using the inductive method I would deduce that all basketball players must be tall. Nevertheless, everybody can play basketball, despite their height.

Hume states that we derive our ideaa of power or necessary connection from a feeling of connection in the mind. This means that when we say that one event is connected with another, all we mean is that they have come to be connected in our thoughts.

Karl Popper gives a solution to the problem of induction and Hume's problem, which are the same,. Hume's problem was the justification of induction and Popper's solution to it consisted of replacing inductive reasoning for the falsification method. We should put down our hypotheses to critical discussions and empirical testing, trying to refute or falsify the theory. He claims that all the theories that have resisted all the attempts to refute them can be considered true.