Research Paper on:
Belief Formation and Induction

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
based on what they believe to be truth. Such opinions then serve as the foundation for belief. The philosophical concept of "induction" may be defined several ways. For example, in  scientific thinking it is the process in which what can best be named as a "hunch" is followed and empirical evidence is found to lead to a particular conclusion regarding  the laws of nature and the physical world. Gardner (2002) adds: "Induction operates in two ways. It either advances a conjecture by what are called confirming instances, or it falsifies  a conjecture by contrary or disconfirming evidence" (pp. 12). Such a statement applies to animate and inanimate occurrences and can also be thought of as an "inferential" process, i.e.  such action infers that something is a truth. An example that is used time and time again is a statement that all crows are black. Because a person making such  a statement has never seen or heard of anybody who has seen a crow that is not black allows for the inference that all crows are black. All too often,  induction is a process that results in an overly-generalized point of view that cannot serve as an ultimate truth upon which one may base a belief. Those who most support  induction as the framework for forming beliefs think of it as a logical process that involves numerous steps aside from the central and relatively simplified generalization. They also believe that  in comparison to deduction it considers the realm of reality in terms of that which is unique and solid compared to beliefs that come from a processes which more thoroughly  embrace the theoretical and universal. Forming Beliefs To question whether or not it is possible to establish a flawed way of establishing beliefs demonstrates that there are other