Deductive reasoning is a form of logical thinking that relies on a hypothesis or premise believed to be true. This premise is then used to reach a particular logical conclusion. Deductive reasoning relies on available facts, data, or knowledge to come up with a valid conclusion (Wikia, 2013) . It employs more of a top-down approach. This means moving from a rather generalized statement to a more specific, valid conclusion. A basic illustration is the if/then statement. If M = N and N = P, then according to deductive reasoning, M = P. Inductive reasoning entails arriving at a conclusion by the process of generalization using specific facts or data (Vickers, 2013) . It is more of a bottom-up kind of logical approach since it involves expanding specific premises into broader generalizations. In terms of validity, the truth of premises does not guarantee the truth of conclusions. The conclusion may be false even if the premises are true. Consider the following illustration of an inductive argument:
My college lecturers are professors (Premise).
Therefore, all college lecturers are professors (Conclusion).
In the above example, the conclusion is actually wrong because not all lecturers are professors. This is an example of a weak argument.
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Do you feel that most research uses deductive reasoning or inductive reasoning?
I think most research employs the use of deductive reasoning to apply existing theories to specific situations. Research begins with a general idea which one intends to build on and narrow down to a more specific conclusion. Unlike inductive reasoning, the conclusions from deductive reasoning are certain, provided the premises are true. This makes most research work valid and reliable. Some research works may also use inductive reasoning to come up with hypotheses or general theories.
References
Vickers, J. M. (2013). Inductive reasoning. Oxford Bibliographies Online Datasets . https://doi.org/10.1093/obo/9780195396577-0171
Wikia, S. (2013). Psychology - Reasoning: Inductive deductive reasoning, logic, logical fallacies, inference, transitive inference, Abductive reasoning, Abductive valid . University-Press.org.
