Induction: The glory of science and philosophy

The aim of this contribution is to provide a rather general answer to Hume’s problem, the well-known problem of induction. To this end, it is very useful to apply his differentiation between “relations of ideas” and “matters of fact”, and to reconsider earlier approaches. In so doing, we consider the problem formally (chap. 3), as well as empirically (chap. 4). Next, received attempts to solve the problem are discussed (chap. 5). The basic structure of inductive problems is exposed in chap. 6. Our final conclusions are to the positive, i.e., Hume’s problem can be dealt with solved in a constructive way (chap. 7). More specifically, bounded generalisations can be justified, and the key to the solution is the concept of information.