Almost every website that talks about it says, “Inductive reasoning is a bottom up” approach while “deductive is a top down approach”.
Can anyone explain to me the THE DIFFERENCE? What makes these two forms of reasoning so different? Examples are always appreciated as well.
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What they’re describing is the relationship between **Specific Facts (‘Top’)**, and **Generalizations (‘Bottom’).**
**Deductive** reasoning is going from top to bottom. You take established facts, and then make a general conclusion from them. It’s probably what you think of when you think about “basic logic problems”.
“Well, *all* dogs naturally have ears, and *all* Golden Retrievers are a type of dog. That must mean that all golden retrievers naturally have ears.” **Specific > General**
**Inductive** reasoning is going the opposite direction. It’s taking in general points, and getting specific facts from them. You probably understand this better as “pattern recognition”.
“Well, a **pent**agon has 5 sides, **hex**agon has 6 sides, and an **oct**agon has 8 sides. That must mean a **non**agon has 9 sides, and a **dec**agon has 10 sides.” **General > Specific**. (Penta = “five”, “hexa” = “six”, etc. if you don’t know greek)
Each type is useful for something different.
Deductive reasoning is powerful assuming your presumed facts are correct,but hard facts aren’t too common, and general answers aren’t always helpful. Inductive reasoning on the other hand is generally a lot easier to implement (it gives specific answers), but it’s a bit more prone to error because generalizations can have unexpected exceptions.
Fun Fact: Sherlock Holmes is famously called “The Master of Deduction”, despite the fact that he only ever uses Inductive Reasoning in most of his incarnations.
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