Question

CHAPTER 4 / Inferences: What Follows? 115 How Inferences Can Go Right and Wrong We develop inferences to help us fill in for missing facts and make sense of the facts we have. Moreover, we have to keep checking them against our facts; otherwise we could build one faulty inference on top of another. We solve problems by asking questions, gathering facts, making inferences from them, and then letting these inferences suggest strategies for finding new facts, which in turn lead to new inferences. Each inference directs us toward our objective. When we use inferences consciously and imaginatively, they give us the certainties we need to move forward. Inferences are essential mental operations in the search for knowledge. But we have to learn how to make them soundly. The greatest difficulties occur when inferences are confused with facts or acted upon as though they were facts. Inferences used with conscious skill lead us to knowledge. When used without conscious awareness, they lead us to confusion and illusion. Let us now consider contrasting examples of how inferences can create either knowledge or confusion. Let's begin with a reading selection showing the thinking of that master of skillful inference, Sherlock Holmes

Please help me Answer the first Class discussion question on p. 118 abou the inferences of the two customers in the computer store.

Answer 1

Answer to Question 1, class discussion:

The inferences of the two customers are in wholly different directions because they are making deductions based on their line of reasoning. In case of the first customer, he/she is convinced that the man is a theif and makes no doubt about the judgement made. However, in the case of the second customer, he/she accepts and admits that he/she is not completely aware of the situation and makes several assumptions. The second customer comes up with a lot more flexible explanations of the situation, as opposed to a singular and rigid interpretation made by the first one.