more from Charles Sanders Peirce

Single Idea 19251

[catalogued under 14. Science / C. Induction / 3. Limits of Induction]

Full Idea

The most dangerous fallacy of inductive reasoning consists in examining a sample, finding some recondite property in it, and concluding at once that it belongs to the whole collection.

Gist of Idea

The worst fallacy in induction is generalising one recondite property from a sample

Source

Charles Sanders Peirce (Reasoning and the Logic of Things [1898], V)

Book Reference

Peirce,Charles Sanders: 'Reasoning and the Logic of Things', ed/tr. Ketner,K.L. [Harvard 1992], p.194


A Reaction

The point, I take it, is not that you infer that the whole collection has all the properties of the sample, but that some 'recondite' or unusual property is sufficiently unusual to be treated as general.