No number of past regularities logically guarantees the next instance; induction cannot be justified by induction.
Hume's 1739 problem. Distinct from Hume's razor, which concerns proportioning causes to effects. No amount of past regularity licenses the next case, and no argument from experience can establish that it does.
In practice
- A bridge inspected annually for eighty years is inspected again, because the eighty years are a reason to expect and not a reason to know.
- A supplier with a four-year perfect record has given you no logical guarantee about next month, which is why contracts specify remedies rather than trust.
- Standing
- Distinct from Hume's razor, which concerns proportioning causes to effects.
- Subject
- Science & Epistemology
- Essay
- How knowledge grows, and how inquiry fools itself