Quotes About Inference

There are some Men of one, some but of two Syllogisms, and no more; and others that can but advance one step farther.

From a drop of water a logician could infer the possibility of an Atlantic or a Niagara without having seen or heard of one or the other.

When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

The classic deductive inference (actually taken from Aristotle's Categories) is "All men are mortal; Socrates is a man; therefore Socrates is mortal." Usually a good deductive inference goes from greater generalities to lesser ones:

By contrast, inductive logic usually (though not always) goes from the lesser to the greater. "I have five friends who have white beards; all five are over fifty years of age; therefore all men with white beards are over fifty years of age.

Not everything that makes deductive sense may be true.b But if it doesn't fit into a syllogism, Aristotle concluded, then don't bother asking if it's true or not.

The determinism of the physical laws simply reflects the determinism of the method of inference. This soulless nature of the scientific world need not worry those who are persuaded that the main significances of our environment are of a more spiritual character.

It is an astonishing feat of deciphering that we should have been able to infer an orderly scheme of natural knowledge from such indirect communication.

The mind-stuff of the world is, of course, something more general than our individual conscious minds.... It is difficult for the matter-of-fact physicist to accept the view that the substratum of everything is of mental character. But no one can deny that mind is the first and most direct thing in our experience, and all else is remote inference.

Practical observation commonly consists of collecting a few facts and loading them with guesses.

We are a metal band, period. To me, the 'nu' part infers some sort of a rap influence.

From my own being, and from the dependency I find in myself and my ideas, I do, by an act of reason, necessarily infer the existence of a God, and of all created things in the mind of God.

My inference will be that you mean nothing at all. That you employ words to no manner or purpose without any design or signification whatsoever. And I leave it to you to consider how mere jargon should be treated.

The dull mind, once arriving at an inference that flatters the desire, is rarely able to retain the impression that the notion from which the inference started was purely problematic.

Yes, said Mr. Casaubon, with that peculiar pitch of voice which makes the word half a negative.

A dull mind, once arriving at an inference that flatters a desire, is rarely able to retain the impression that the notion from which the inference started was purely problematic.

dull mind, once arriving at an inference that flatters a desire, is rarely able to retain the impression that the notion from which the inference started was purely problematic

La vida es el arte de sacar conclusiones suficientes a partir de datos insuficientes.

You have seen more of him here and in Italy than most girls see of their future husbands." "So I have, — but I have seen no one belonging to him. Don't you understand what I mean? I feel all at sea about him. I am sure he does not mean any harm." "Certainly he does not

And here we must not forget the difference between reasoning from principles, and reasoning to principles:

When you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

From a drop of water," said the writer, "a logical man could understand oceans and waterfalls without having ever seen or heard of them.

From a drop of water, said the writer, a logician could infer the possibility of an Atlantic or a Niagara without having seen or heard of one or the other. So all life is a great chain, the nature of which is known whenever we are shown a single link of it.

The ideal reasoner would, when he had once been shown a single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the chain of events which led up to it but also the results which would follow from it.