Ep 9: The New Riddle of Induction - Eaten by a Grue

Inductive reasoning is the process whereby we take a lot of specific observations and use them to form more general conclusions. For example, because we’ve seen millions of black ravens, we conclude that all ravens are black. In this episode we review some of the problems with inductive reasoning. We start with Hume’s observation that we can never know for sure if the future will be like the past, so we can never know for sure if our inductive conclusions will continue to be true. We then review some of the more contemporary work on the problem of induction, namely Nelson Goodman’s “New Riddle of Induction.” Along the way we learn about the history of video games, why you should avoid Grues in the dark, the number of times Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote “ejaculate” in the Sherlock Holmes stories and which member of the show can do the best Scottish accent (hint: nobody).

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