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Opinion - by Bruno COLMANT, Ph.D., member of the Royal Academy of Belgium
To understand the profound difference in mentalities between Americans and Europeans, we can adopt a variety of interpretations. But one prism dominates the others: the nature of reasoning. Europeans are essentially deductive, while Americans are inductive.
What are we talking about? Deduction and induction are two types of logical reasoning. Deduction consists of concluding from general premises: if the premises are true, the conclusion must also be proper. Conversely, induction starts from specific observations to formulate a provisional and only plausible conclusion. Thus, deduction goes from the general to the particular, while induction goes from the particular to...
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