Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Is the following paragraph deductive or inductive?

The paragraph represents an INDUCTIVE perspective. The first statement is an INDUCTIVE statement supported by the examples that follow in the paragraph. The primary argument supporting the inductive conclusion that the newspapers "rarely agreed on anything" is their inability to agree on something as factual and concrete as the time of day. If the newspapers can't even agree on the time of day, then the author induces that they will not be able to find a way to agree on anything else. The cirstances cited are exaggerated examples used for humorous effect and I think should cast some doubt on the validity of the inductive conclusion that the newspapers RARELY agree. The presumed rate of agreement is very low - RARELY or, in other words, ALMOST NEVER. Citing one or two examples of disagreement seems a stretch to support such a high level of ongoing disagreement. My guess is a broader and more objective sampling of positions taken by each newspaper would likely reveal a higher level of agreement than induced from this paragraph.

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