# Counterinduction

> Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Counterinduction
> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Counterinduction.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counterinduction
> Source revision: 1185398675
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

In logic, '''counterinduction''' is the practice of elaborating a [paradigm](/source/paradigm) that contradicts and helps to question the current one by comparison. [Paul Feyerabend](/source/Paul_Feyerabend) argued for counterinduction as a way to test unchallenged scientific theories; unchallenged simply because there are no structures within the scientific paradigm to challenge itself (See Crotty, 1998 p. 39). For instance, Feyerabend is quoted as saying the following:

"Therefore, the first step in our criticism of customary concepts and customary reactions is to step outside the circle and either to invent a new conceptual system, for example, a new theory, that clashes with the most carefully established observational results and confounds the most plausible theoretical principles, or to import such a system from the outside science, from religion, from mythology, from the ideas of incompetents, or the ramblings of madmen." (Feyerabend, 1993, pp. 52-3)

This gets into the pluralistic methodology that Feyerabend espouses that will help support counterinductive methods. [Paul Feyerabend](/source/Paul_Feyerabend)'s [anarchist](/source/anarchism) theory popularized the notion of counterinduction.

Most of the time when counterinduction is mentioned, it is not presented as a valid rule.  Instead, it is given as a [refutation](/source/refutation) of [Max Black](/source/Max_Black)'s proposed [inductive justification of induction](/source/inductive_justification_of_induction), since the counterinductive justification of counterinduction{{jargon inline|date=January 2017}}  is formally identical to the inductive justification of induction.<ref>[http://www.bcc.ctc.edu/ArtsHum/Materials/phil/Payne/spring03/160HumeproblemSp03.htm The Problem of Induction] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070313180108/http://www.bcc.ctc.edu/ArtsHum/Materials/phil/Payne/spring03/160HumeproblemSp03.htm |date=March 13, 2007 }}</ref> For further information, see [Problem of induction](/source/Problem_of_induction).

==See also==

* {{Annotated link |A priori and a posteriori}}
* {{Annotated link |Abductive reasoning}}
* {{Annotated link |Bayesian inference}}
* {{Annotated link |Hasty generalization}}
* {{Annotated link |Justified true belief}}
* {{Annotated link |Law of large numbers}}
* {{Annotated link |Solomonoff's theory of inductive inference}}

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

{{Epistemology}}
{{philosophy of science}}
{{Positivism}}
{{David Hume}}
Category:Inductive fallacies
{{logic-stub}}

---
Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Counterinduction](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counterinduction) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counterinduction?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.