Situation when I Used Inductive Reasoning - Study

College Research: Situation when I used Inductive Reasoning

Inductive reasoning pertains to an approach towards reasoning that takes into consideration some specific information, and induces a wider generalization, which may be regarded to be accurate, while entertaining the possibility that the given conclusion may not be true (Feeney & Heit 2). I do use inductive reasoning while dealing with personal problems.

The last situation in which used inductive reasoning was to sort out my feelings regarding my fast friend Emanuel. It happened that Emanuel made a comment pertaining to my character and personality. He told me that "I was a very lazy person". I considered this comment to be really painful as I am proud of my work ethics and hard working personality. In that sense it really hurt my sense of pride and self esteem. This particular comment really compromised my self-concept. I got really enervated by his comment as I later pondered on it. I felt really irritable about and rather angry with Emanuel for calling me a "lazy person". I thought of confronting Emanuel because of the personal comment he made about me. However, engaging in inductive thinking prevented me from doing so.

I applied inductive reasoning in this specific scenario in this particular format. I considered a number of premises before deciding to have an argument with Emanuel. The first premise that I considered was "Emanuel is a good friend who will scarcely think about hurting me for no reason". I found this premise to be true most of the times. I was factually sure that Emanuel was a good friend of mine who seldom acted mean.

The next premise that I considered was "Emanuel will always criticize me keeping my best interests in mind". Again, I found this premise to be true and right most of the times. The next premise that I considered was "In the past Emanuel never deliberately hurt me". As the other two premises that I considered, again I found this premise to be accurate. Considering these three premises led me to the following conclusion, "Therefore I should not get angry with any person who criticizes me to do good to me." Hence, going by this inductive reasoning, I arrived at the conclusion that I should not mind Emanuel's comment because he criticized me keeping my best interest in mind. I used multiple premises associated with my relationship with Emanuel to arrive at the final conclusion. I arrived at a generalized conclusion after considering several specific pieces of information.

I must say that I was able to reason successfully in this particular personal situation. Had I not engaged in inductive reasoning while making a decision, I will have certainly confronted Emanuel about the comment he made pertaining to me. Perhaps, this will have made me loose a good friend. Certainly, inductive reasoning helped me in this particular scenario.

Works Cited

Feeney, Aidan, & Evan Heit. Inductive Reasoning. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Print.