Basic features of Inductive and Deductive reasoning and their uses in Courts

A forensic scientist finds gunshot residue on a suspect's sleeve and, from a hundred past cases, concludes he probably fired the weapon. A judge reads a statute and concludes that on these facts, this particular accused must be acquitted. Both are reasoning — but only one of them can ever be proved wrong by a single new fact. That difference is deduction versus induction.

In two minutes

Deductive reasoning moves from general premises to a particular conclusion that follows with certainty if the premises are true; inductive reasoning moves from particular observations to a general or probable conclusion that can always, in principle, be overturned by one more observation.

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