Word Finder - inferences

definition

The act or process of inferring by deduction or induction.

definition

That which is inferred; a truth or proposition drawn from another which is admitted or supposed to be true; a conclusion; a deduction.

Child dismisses his inferences as "ludicrous."

What is scientific method as a system of inferences about definite subjects?

He draws no inferences to theology or religion, whether friendly or hostile, from his new positions.

The question of logic is how we infer in fact, as well as perfectly; and we cannot understand inference unless we consider inferences of probability of all kinds.

Such is the evidence on which so many inferences are based.

Haruspication, or the inspection of entrails, was justified on similar grounds, and in the case of omens from birds or animals, no less than in astrology, it was held that the facts from which inferences were drawn were themselves in part the causes of the events which they foretold, thus fortifying the belief in the possibility of divination.

Sociology and the science of culture are concerned with the origin and development of arts and sciences, opinions, beliefs, customs, laws and institutions generally among mankind within historic time; while beyond the historical limit the study is continued by inferences from relics of early ages and remote districts, to interpret which is the task of pre-historic archaeology and geology.

The selections you choose can help practice logical thinking as readers draw conclusions and make inferences as they read.

But fuller conceptions of evolution raise further difficulties for intuitionalism in its wonted forms. Knowledge cannot be divided into the two components - immediate certainties, precarious inferences.

He was quite aware of the taxonomic value of the vocal organs of some groups of birds, presently to be especially mentioned, and he had himself ascertained the presence and absence of caeca in a not inconsiderable number of groups, drawing thence very justifiable inferences.

It is, however, exceedingly difficult in this respect to draw an absolute distinction between men and animals, observation of which undoubtedly suggests that the latter have a certain power of making inferences.

As regards the use of testimonia, it may be observed to begin with that their value must depend on the trustworthiness of the texts of the writers from whom they are taken, and further upon that of the text used by the translator, the excerptor or the quoter, about which we can know nothing for certain, though we may sometimes make probable inferences.

The excavations have provided examples of houses of every description, from the humble dwelling-place of the artisan or proletarian, with only three or four small rooms, to the stately mansions of Sallust, of the Faun, of the Golden Cupids, of the Silver Wedding, of the Vettii, of Pansa, 1 &c. - the last of which is among the most regular in plan, and may be taken as an almost 1 It may be observed that the names given in most cases to the houses are either arbitrary or founded in the first instance upon erroneous inferences.

The great merit of conceptual logic was the demand for a mental analysis of mental reasoning, and the direct analysis of reasoning into judgments which are the sole premises and conclusions of reasoning and of all mental inferences.

To give the name of syllogism to inferences which infringe the general rules against undistributed middle, illicit process, two negative premises, non-sequitur from negative to affirmative, and the introduction of what is not in the premises into the conclusion, and which consequently infringe the special rules against affirmative conclusions in the second figure, and against universal conclusions in the third figure, is to open the door to fallacy, and at best to confuse the syllogism with other kinds of inference, without enabling us to understand any one kind.

In the same way, to infer a machine from hearing the regular tick of a clock, to infer a player from finding a pack of cards arranged in suits, to infer a human origin of stone implements, and all such inferences from patent effects to latent causes, though they appear to Jevons to be typical inductions, are really deductions which, besides the minor premise stating the particular effects, require a major premise discovered by a previous induction and stating the general kind of effects of a general kind of cause.

Secondly, a subordinate point in Bradley's logic is that there are inferences which are not syllogisms; and this is true.

Moreover, as we have shown, our primary judgments of sense are beliefs founded on sensations without requiring ideas, and are beliefs, not merely that something is determined, but that it is determined as existing; and, accordingly, our primary inferences from these sensory judgments of existence are inferences that other things beyond sense are similarly determined as existing.

The aim of logic in general is to find the laws of all inference, which, so far as it obeys those laws, is always consistent, but is true or false according to its data as well as its consistency; and the aim of the special logic of knowledge is to find the laws of direct and indirect inferences from sense, because as sense produces sensory judgments which are always true of the sensible things actually perceived, inference from sense produces inferential judgments which, so far as they are consequent on sensory judgments, are always true of things similar to sensible things, by the very consistency of inference, or, as we say, by parity of reasoning.

It is true, of course, that ultimate laws need discovery, that they are discovered in some sense in the medium of the psychological mechanism, and that they are nevertheless the grounds of all specific inferences.

But inferences of this class have hardly attained to sufficient certainty and generality to be set down in the form of rules.

Again, certain inferences have been tentatively made from the depth of mud, earth, peat, &c., which has accumulated above relics of human art imbedded in ancient times.

Lastly, chronicles and documentary records, taken in connexion with archaeological relics of the historical period, carry back into distant ages the starting-point of actual history, behind which lies the evidently vast period only known by inferences from the relations of languages and the stages of development of civilization.

Though few follow him so far, an explanation of the principle will make it clear that there are numerous possible opportunities for anomalous dispersion to qualify inferences from the spectrum.

Jacobi's next important work, David Hume fiber den Glauben, oder Idealismus and Realismus (1787), was an attempt to show not only that the term Glaube had been used by the most eminent writers to denote what he had employed it for in the Letters on Spinoza, but that the nature of the cognition of facts as opposed to the construction of inferences could not be otherwise expressed.

Thus inferences from embryonic development need to be checked by palaeontology, and supplemented by comparison of the anatomy of other living genera.

In spite, however, of possible inferences from his definition of virtue, this does not seem to be really More's view.

He thus undoubtedly simplifies his system, and avoids the doubtful inferences from nature and Scripture in which Paley's position is involved; but this gain is dearly purchased.

In the first sense, again, as distinct from the second, the assertion of " freedom " has no ethical significance, except in so far as it introduces a general uncertainty into all our inferences respecting human conduct.

It would be quite possible to accept his criticisms of naturalism and hedonism while rejecting many of the metaphysical inferences which he draws.

Even later, when the telescope was the only instrument of research, knowledge on this subject was confined to the appearances presented by the planets, supplemented by more or less probable inferences as to the nature of their surfaces.

Even in the time of Copernicus some well-meaning persons, especially those of the reformed persuasion, had suspected a discrepancy between the new view of the solar system and certain passages of Scripture - a suspicion strengthened by the antiChristian inferences drawn from it by Giordano Bruno; but the question was never formally debated until Galileo's brilliant disclosures, enhanced by his formidable dialectic and enthusiastic zeal, irresistibly challenged for it the attention of the authorities.

With the sure instinct of genius, he seized the characteristic features of the phenomena presented to his attention, and his inferences, except when distorted by polemical exigencies, have been strikingly confirmed by modern investigations.

But it has not justified the application of this conclusion to all the instances in which some critics have relied upon it, or the sweeping inferences and reconstructions which have sometimes been based upon it.

The few and incomplete data which we at present possess as to Palaeozoic Fungi do not as yet justify any inferences as to the evolution of these plants.

There were inferences of discrimination from the arrangements adopted by the employers.

There were pragmatic inferences.

No skill in drawing inferences will avail him there.

By manipulating the pointers, subjects can derive inferences that are not explicit in the text.

However, the Inquiry is concerned that current categorisations used in the SSCSS survey do not permit clear inferences to be drawn.

Hence, the attempt to rescue inductive inferences by grafting deductive inferences onto them disguises rather than solves the problem of induction.

In the omission theory, the question about what inferences are made " during reading " is beside the point. /para para para 6.4.

It may be generally concluded that the substitution of alkyl, nitro, hydroxyl, and haloid groups for hydrogen in a molecule occasions a deformation of crystal structure in one definite direction, hence permitting inferences as to the configuration of the atoms composing the crystal; while the nature and degree of the alteration depends (1) upon the crystal structure of the unsubstituted compound; (2) on the nature of the substituting radicle; (3) on the complexity of the substituted molecule; and (4) on the orientation of the substitution derivative.

If the church, and not the state, was regarded as Babylon, and the pope declared to be the Antichrist, these were legitimate inferences from the ancient traditions and the actual position of the church.

Study of his original papers shows that his discoveries were not made at haphazard, but were the outcome of experiments carefully planned to verify inferences already drawn, and successfully designed to settle the point at issue in the simplest and most direct manner.

Further, the effects that he estimates are all of a definite, palpable, empirically ascertainable quality; they are such pleasures and pains as most men feel and all can observe, so that all his political or moral inferences lie open at every point to the test of practical experience.

The subject matter of the text is, obviously, a crucial determinant of the role that spatial inferences play in understanding it.

Thus we speak of man as essentially a rational animal, it being implied that man differs from all other animals in that he can consciously draw inferences from premises.

It will be best to give first the leading facts, and then the inferences which may be drawn from them.

All other judgments and inferences about existing things, or ideas, or names, whether categorical or hypothetical, are afterthoughts, partly true and partly false.