In his Treatise of Human Nature, David Hume argues strongly against our intuitions about inductio... more In his Treatise of Human Nature, David Hume argues strongly against our intuitions about induction. In his view, the justification of induction relies upon the principle of the uniformity of nature, a principle that we can only justify by an appeal to induction. Thus, a non-circular justification of induction is impossible. This argument has troubled philosophers ever since, especially philosophers interested in the philosophy of science. One prominent solution to this problem comes from Karl Popper, who posited a deductivist solution to the problem. In this paper, I will briefly summarize Hume's argument as well as Popper's response to it. I will then argue that Popper's account twice fails to solve the problem of induction: first, as A. J. Ayer pointed out, his account appears to contain a built-in inductive assumption, and second, by shifting his discussion from induction to deduction, Popper begs Hume's question, merely shifting from a problem of induction to a problem of deduction.
In his Treatise of Human Nature, David Hume argues strongly against our intuitions about inductio... more In his Treatise of Human Nature, David Hume argues strongly against our intuitions about induction. In his view, the justification of induction relies upon the principle of the uniformity of nature, a principle that we can only justify by an appeal to induction. Thus, a non-circular justification of induction is impossible. This argument has troubled philosophers ever since, especially philosophers interested in the philosophy of science. One prominent solution to this problem comes from Karl Popper, who posited a deductivist solution to the problem. In this paper, I will briefly summarize Hume's argument as well as Popper's response to it. I will then argue that Popper's account twice fails to solve the problem of induction: first, as A. J. Ayer pointed out, his account appears to contain a built-in inductive assumption, and second, by shifting his discussion from induction to deduction, Popper begs Hume's question, merely shifting from a problem of induction to a problem of deduction.
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Papers by Samuel R Burns