Mill's Inductive Reasoning
Mill 's Inductive reasoning
Method of Agreement
Mill 's method of agreement identifies a cause of an event in terms of its sufficient condition. When using this method, one searches for a single factor that is common to multiple situations in which the same event occurred.
Mill says that, when two or more occurrences of the event under investigation have only one condition in common, then that condition is the cause of the event. (Mill, 2002)
More simply stated, Mill 's method of agreement eliminates all but one common precursor. Mill 's method of agreement requires that in all cases where a consequence has occurred, the antecedent condition must be present. This method isolates the supposed origin by listing all of the possible factors that can be considered possible causes, then discovering the one factor common to all cases, (Mill, 2002). For example: Suppose that after work four people go to the local deli. After eating lunch, everyone becomes very sick. As they return to work, these people discuss what could have caused everyone to get so ill and everyone itemizes the items that were eaten: one had the fish special, drank water, hush puppies and coleslaw, and for desert, cherry pie.
Another one had a hamburger, French fries, coleslaw and a diet pepsi, and again, cherry pie for dessert. The third person only had the coleslaw and a diet pepsi. The last one had a hamburger, coleslaw, diet pepsi and cherry pie.
From this one could generate a chart showing what everyone had to eat and determine the probable causes. Using Mill 's method of agreement one sees that the only food everyone had in common was coleslaw. One could then, conclude that the illness was caused by the coleslaw. There is one common precursor, and the following hypothesis could be stated, "The coleslaw at the local deli will make you sick if you eat it." This hypothesis would be even stronger if more people became ill after eating the coleslaw.
However there is a certain weakness to
Method of Agreement
Mill 's method of agreement identifies a cause of an event in terms of its sufficient condition. When using this method, one searches for a single factor that is common to multiple situations in which the same event occurred.
Mill says that, when two or more occurrences of the event under investigation have only one condition in common, then that condition is the cause of the event. (Mill, 2002)
More simply stated, Mill 's method of agreement eliminates all but one common precursor. Mill 's method of agreement requires that in all cases where a consequence has occurred, the antecedent condition must be present. This method isolates the supposed origin by listing all of the possible factors that can be considered possible causes, then discovering the one factor common to all cases, (Mill, 2002). For example: Suppose that after work four people go to the local deli. After eating lunch, everyone becomes very sick. As they return to work, these people discuss what could have caused everyone to get so ill and everyone itemizes the items that were eaten: one had the fish special, drank water, hush puppies and coleslaw, and for desert, cherry pie.
Another one had a hamburger, French fries, coleslaw and a diet pepsi, and again, cherry pie for dessert. The third person only had the coleslaw and a diet pepsi. The last one had a hamburger, coleslaw, diet pepsi and cherry pie.
From this one could generate a chart showing what everyone had to eat and determine the probable causes. Using Mill 's method of agreement one sees that the only food everyone had in common was coleslaw. One could then, conclude that the illness was caused by the coleslaw. There is one common precursor, and the following hypothesis could be stated, "The coleslaw at the local deli will make you sick if you eat it." This hypothesis would be even stronger if more people became ill after eating the coleslaw.
However there is a certain weakness to
References: Kemerling, G. (2001). Causal Reasoning accessed 8/22/2005 www.philosophypages.com/lg/e14.htm Marzano, R., Pickering, D., Arredondo, D., Blackburn, G., Brandt, R., & Moffett, C. (1992) Dimensions of Learning Teacher 's Manual. Alexandria, VA: ASCD. Mill, J. S., (2002). A System of Logic: Ratiocinative and Inductive. University Press of the Pacific. Resnick, L. (1987). Education and Learning to Think. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. Sternberg, R. (2003). Cognitive psychology. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson.