The Inductive Method
Definition: A leading in or drawing off a general
fact from a number of instances, or summing up
the results of observations and experiments.
Step #1: All the facts are reported
Step #2: Observations are made about the facts.
Step #3: Inferences are drawn from these observations –
conclusion(s) based on the connection of known facts.
What are all imaginable explanations?
What are my presuppositions and biases?
Which inference best fits the facts?
Guiding Principles of Induction:
1. Data are hard facts about which there is no dispute.
2. The law of harmony: Truth does not contradict itself.
3. Arrival at the truth is inevitable if all fact are reported and
allowed to speak for themselves.
4. Induction precedes deduction.
5. Presuppositions can be identified and subjugated for the
sake of the research and judgment suspended until all
the data have been collected and properly evaluated.
Guiding Principles of Induction:
6. Discarding or retaining a hypothesis is a relatively simple
matter.
7. Scientific knowledge is cumulative and progresses
linearly by adding new facts and generalizations to old
ones
Are these valid assumptions?
Guiding Principles of Induction:
1. Data are hard facts about which there is no
dispute.
(a)
Linguistics are more fluid than hard data.
(b)
What "counts" as data often depends on the
theoretical matrix of the research.
(c)
Even hard data is violently disputed (e.g.
Creation vs. Science)
Guiding Principles of Induction:
2. The Law of Harmony--Truth does not contradict
itself. True, BUT:
(a)
We may misapprehend truth.
(b)
Ethics is sometimes relative (Rom. 14:23,
Eating Meat, cf. James 4:17; Marriage).
(c)
There is divine paradox--Freewill/Sovereignty
of God.
Guiding Principles of Induction:
3. Arrival at the truth is inevitable--if all the facts
are reported and allowed to speak for
themselves.
(a)
We can seldom get all the facts.
(b)
There are seldom single answers in life.
(c)
There will be bias and gaps in the facts which
affect our understanding.
Guiding Principles of Induction:
4. Hypotheses arise from the data themselves and
is a natural act of insight.
(a)
Hypotheses seldom arise from the facts alone
but also from our preunderstanding and bias.
(b)
This "act of insight" cannot be perfectly
controlled and often leads to different
"insights" with different researches even in
the hard sciences.
Guiding Principles of Induction:
5. Presuppositions can be identified and subjugated
for the sake of the research and judgement
suspended until all the data have been collected
and properly evaluated.
(a)
Presuppositions can not always be identified.
(b)
We often have great difficulty separating our
biases from the research itself.
Generally we naturally begin forming opinions
and hypotheses before we have even finished
collecting the data, let alone sufficiently
analyzed them.
(c)
Guiding Principles of Induction:
6. Discarding or retaining a hypothesis is a
relatively simple matter, depending merely on
whether the additional experimental data
support it.
(a) Ego, especially after an hypotheses has gone
to print, is terribly difficult to overcome!
(b) Our past research often shapes and colors
any future research so as to make it fit our
previous cognitive schema (Piaget).
(c)
We use this as a survival mechanism to retain
balance, BUT it makes it increasingly more
difficult to change people's minds.
Guiding Principles of Induction:
7. Scientific knowledge is cumulative and
progresses linearly by adding new facts and
generalizations to old ones.
(a) Revolutions often require a paradigm shift in
the sciences which make us rethink the whole of
the subject (e.g. Eistein's theory of relativity).
Guiding Principles of Induction:
Conclusions
1. The inductive Method is the best available
method of the study of the Scriptures.
2. It is not a perfect Method.
3. We ought to hold our conclusions tentatively
and with humility. We seek truth not
"rightness."
4. Our goal is to know God, not just to know about
Him and to gather and collect facts.
3 Steps of the Inductive Method
I. Reading
(A) Observation & Questions (1)
(B) Outline -- Context (2)
II. Examination
(A) Historical Setting (3)
(i) Background: Author, destination, occasion,
purpose, date
(ii) Facts: Culture, flora/fauna, geography, politics,
archaeology, etc.
(B) Words (4)
(C) Grammar (5)
(D) Parallel Passages (6)
(E) Commentaries (7)
III.Exposition
(A) Explanation (8)
(B) Paraphrase (9)
(C) Application (10)