deductive
From general, specific
Deductive describes reasoning that moves from general principles to specific conclusions.
If all mammals are warm-blooded and a whale is a mammal, then a whale must be warm-blooded—that's deductive logic.
The conclusion follows necessarily from the premises.
Contrast with inductive reasoning, which generalizes from specific observations: The detective's deductive method led him to the only possible suspect.
Formal deductive argument structure
- premiseFoundation for logical argument
- conclusionEnd or deduction
- inferenceConclusion reached through reasoning
- validityQuality of being sound
theorem · proof · axiom · corollary · proposition · contrapositive · entailment · implication
syllogism
Formal deductive argument structure
- premiseFoundation for logical argument
- conclusionEnd or deduction
- inferenceConclusion reached through reasoning
validity · theorem · proof · axiom · corollary · proposition · contrapositive · entailment · implication · antecedent
detective
Professional crime investigator
mystery · whodunit · culprit · forensics · alibi · reasoning · method · elimination · suspect · case
- rational thinkinglogic, reason, analytical, objective, rational
- reasoningreasoning, reason, logic, inference, analysis
- research methodsexperiment, hypothesis, experiments, scientific method, research methods
- logic termsif, then, valid, premises, and
- logical thinkinglogical, rational, analytical, inferential, syllogistic
- thinking stylesanalytical, creative thinker, critical thinker, rational, critical
deductiveinductive
Deriving general from particular
bottom-up · empirical · data-driven · observational · synthetic
deductiveintuitive
Known without reasoning
instinctive · irrational · nonrational · illogical · fallacious
- tax deductionPermitted income reduction
- charitable deductionTax reduction for donations
- payroll deductionSum subtracted from wages
- logical deductionDeriving conclusions from premises
- deductive reasoningDeriving specifics from generalities
- home office deductionTax break for workspace