“The problem of induction is, roughly speaking, the problem of finding a way to prove that certain empirical generalizations which are derived from past experience will hold good also in the future.”

— Alfred Jules Ayer , book Language, Truth, and Logic

Source: Language, Truth, and Logic (1936), p. 49.
Context: The problem of induction is, roughly speaking, the problem of finding a way to prove that certain empirical generalizations which are derived from past experience will hold good also in the future. There are only two ways of approaching this problem on the assumption that it is a genuine problem, and it is easy to see that neither of them can lead to its solution.

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Alfred Jules Ayer 18

English philosopher 1910–1989

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