Thread: Problem of Induction

Originally Posted by tommo

If something has been proven to be true every time in the past, multiple times, then we can assume it will always be true in the future.

Why can we assume this? Can't we only assume it's been true every time we've tested it? This being in a very small fraction of time (even if considering the whole lifespan of humanity) could we really ignore that the "laws" we've made for the physical processes of nature could really be trying to describe things that are dynamical, even if so slowly that in a life time they are very accurate and useful?

Originally Posted by tommo

If it is not true for some reason later on, the knowledge of that thing will just change to say "This is usually true, but very, very occasionally it is not true".

That "very occasionally" may very well be an indication that our whole idea of this process we observe is wrong and that a better idea should be sought out. If your talking about just the observation itself being usually true, what if it depends on a dynamical process that up till now has been slow and unnoticeable but can start to accelerate or change more abruptly? You couldn't be sure that the deviation from that usual observation will always stay rare.