A Lesson In Reasoning
Do you remember learning about inductive and deductive reasoning? I remember learning these little examples in junior high school or some such. And it has occurred to me lately, that much of this country's troubles might be solved if folks could remember the difference between inductive and deductive reasoning. Here's deductive reasoning. All dogs have ears. Spot is a dog. Spot has ears. Inductive reasoning: All dogs have ears. George has ears. George must be a dog. Clearly, George might be any number of things, but not necessarily a dog. This is such a basic lesson that we are taught at a pretty young age; yet it seems that the folks making decisions and giving advice in this country, don't know the difference. Large scale example: People who own homes have job stability. Therefore, if we give people homes, they'll have job stability. ?? Perhaps we should consider that the job stability enabled the acquisition of the home and not the other way...