The two main types of thinking: Inductive and Deductive

There are two main types of reasoning: (1) inductive and (2) deductive. Most other types of logic stems from these two main roots.

What is inductive reasoning and deductive reasoning? What’s the difference between the two?

Above is the depiction of Inductive and Deductive Thinking

When to use which?

Inductive is the way to go in business settings

Both reasoning are perfectly fine. In business settings, however, inductive reasoning is usually the go-to choice because it puts less burden on the receiver. If you was speaking to someone, for instance during a presentation, the listener has to hold the information you fed him while processing it at the same time, which is a demanding task.

Deductive is more natural and rigid

Deductive reasoning is the kind that we use in everyday thinking. And it’s the mother of the famous syllogism example:

  • All men are mortal.
  • Socrates is a man.
  • Therefore, Socrates is mortal.

Also, it is better than inductive reasoning at explaining a complex situation whose patterns aren’t conspicuous. The above example of Socrates being a mortal is a simple one, but we can build convoluted argument by integrating deductive argument derivatives: ‘denying the consequent,’ ‘disjunctive argument,’ ‘chain arguments,’ etc.

Lastly, it is considered ‘stronger’ reasoning since its conclusion, if built correctly, can’t be false given that the premises are true.

How to use?

4 D 5 I

In business settings, it’s wiser to limit the use of elements to four for deductive reasoning and five for inductive reasoning.

‘I’ always come on top

30 seconds is the time you have until your reader decides whether to read more or not. Therefore, inductive reasoning must be used at the top of your paper.

As the reader digs deeper into your argument, he or she can discover webs of deductive reasoning corroborating your inductive pillars! But, until then, you don’t want to dissuade your readers from finding out your ideas by appearing too complex or boring.

References

Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash|
Ideas from Barbara Minto’s The Pyramid Principle, basic logic’s note from Michigan State University (
https://msu.edu/user/blmiller/BasicLogic/DeductiveArguments.htm), William Walker Atkinson’s The Art of Logical Thinking and Brandon Royal’s the Little Blue Reasoning Book.