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Inductive VS Deductive arguments

Hello everyone. I am happy I found your forum!

I am taking a philosophy course and I am just a bit confused about the two arguments that I need to show which is deductive and the other inductive.

Argument A: 1. When we observe our world, we see that there is widespread disagreement among cultures about what is moral.2. The best explanation of this widespread disagreement is that what makes something moral just is that it is accepted as moral by a given culture.3. Therefore, what makes something moral just is that it is accepted as moral by a given culture.

Argument B: 1. If we observe widespread disagreement about morality among cultures then what makes something moral just is that it is accepted as moral by a given culture.2. We observe widespread disagreement about morality among cultures.3. Therefore, what makes something moral just is that it is accepted as moral by a given culture.

I believe argument B is the one that is deductive am I right or wrong? It's just all new to me and get a bit confused
I also need to find out the FORM of each.

I really can use some help from anyone. Thank you so much.
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Avatar for jimbleby
jimbleby
7
Hi!

(B) is deductive, as you say. That's because the premises - 1 and 2 - logically entail the conclusion, 3. The point of a deductive argument is that there should be a watertight, undeniable link between the premises and the conclusion. The classic example of a deductive argument, which has the same form as (B), is:

1 All men are mortal
2 Socrates is a man
3 Therefore Socrates is mortal

In (A), that isn't the case. 2 uses the wording "the best explanation" - this isn't watertight, logical. It's qualitative. This means that the conclusion, 3, that what makes something "is" just what is accepted by a given culture, doesn't follow logically from 2. 2 says "this is a pretty good explanation", then 3 is suddenly all like "so this is totally 100% certain now everyone!".

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