The Presupposition Theory of Induction

Abstract

1. Introduction. It is generally admitted that a large part of man's knowledge is based on inductive arguments. Hence any philosophical theory concerning the nature of inductive arguments constitutes an epistemological theory. Any such philosophical theory of induction must, if it is to be satisfactory, take adequate account of Hume's criticism of inductive arguments. One way of treating his criticism is to say that the validity of inductive arguments is in an important sense relative to some broad factual assumptions about the general nature of the universe and that these general factual assumptions are presupposed in a certain way by the users of inductive arguments (8, 10). Let us call any theory of this general type a postulate theory of induction.