Best Inference Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

Source: Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do and What It Says About Us

“A writer's mind is unhinged when he starts from “I write, what I see”, but ends up with “I see, what I write”

“Science proceeds by inference, rather than by the deduction of mathematical proof. A series of observations is accumulated, forcing the deeper question: What must be true if we are to explain what is observed? What "big picture" of reality offers the best fit to what is actually observed in our experience? American scientist and philosopher Charles S. Peirce used the term "abduction" to refer to the way in which scientists generate theories that might offer the best explanation of things. The method is now more often referred to as "inference to the best explanation." It is now widely agreed to be the philosophy of investigation of the world characteristic of the natural sciences.”

Science Theory Proof Observation Explanation Scientific Method Philosophy Of Science Inference Theorizing

Author:Alister E. McGrath

“And the user may have a higher comfort level deciding what information to provide rather than worrying about what inferences might be made from what they've gathered.”

May Made Might Levels Worry Information Higher Comfort Users Inference

Author:Edward Felten

“The extreme rarity of transitional forms in the fossil record persists as a trade secret of Paleontology. Evolutionary trees that adorn our textbooks have data only at the tips and nodes of their branches; the rest is inference, however reasonable, not the evidence of fossils.”

Form Secret Records Tree Evolution Evidence Trade Extremes Data Branches Reasonable Persist Fossils Textbooks Inference Rarity Paleontology Creation Science Creation And Evolution

Author:Stephen Jay Gould

“The so called unconscious inferences can be traced back to the all-preserving memory, which presents us with parallel experiences and hence already knows the consequences of an action. It is not anticipation of the effects; rather, it is the feeling: identical causes, identical effects . . .”

Knows Feelings Action Causes Memories Effects Consequence Unconscious Anticipation Parallels Identical Inference

Book:Unpublished Writings from the Period of Unfashionable Observations

Source: Unpublished Writings from the Period of Unfashionable Observations

“TECHNICALITY, n. In an English court a man named Home was tried for slander in having accused his neighbor of murder. His exact words were: "Sir Thomas Holt hath taken a cleaver and stricken his cook upon the head, so that one side of the head fell upon one shoulder and the other side upon the other shoulder." The defendant was acquitted by instruction of the court, the learned judges holding that the words did not charge murder, for they did not affirm the death of the cook, that being only an inference.”

Men Home Sides Taken Judging Murder Cooking Court Neighbor Shoulders Cooks Instruction Accused Slander Inference Technicalities Cleaver

Book:Delphi Complete Works of Ambrose Bierce (Illustrated)

Source: Delphi Complete Works of Ambrose Bierce (Illustrated)

“Rules and particular inferences alike are justified by being brought into agreement with each other. A rule is amended if it yields an inference we are unwilling to accept; an inference is rejected if it violates a rule we are unwilling to amend.”

Ifs Accepting Particular Agreement Yield Rejected Justified Unwilling Inference

Book:Problems and projects

Source: Problems and projects

“Intelligent thinking means an increment of freedom in action-an emancipation from chance and fatality. 'Thought' represents the suggestion of a way of response that is different from that which would have been followed if intelligent observation had not effected an inference as to the future.”

Ifs Thinking Way Mean Has Beens Different Action Chance Intelligent Response Observation Suggestions Emancipation Inference Fatality

Book:The Middle Works, 1899-1924: 1920

Source: The Middle Works, 1899-1924: 1920

“The First Amendment's language leaves no room for inference that abridgments of speech and press can be made just because they are slight. That Amendment provides, in simple words, that "Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press." I read "no law . . . abridging" to mean no law abridging.”

Firsts Mean Made Law Language Simple Rooms Speech Presses Congress Amendments Freedom Of Speech First Amendment Inference Simple Words

Author:Hugo Black

“Econometrics may be defined as the quantitative analysis of actual economic phenomena based on the concurrent development of theory and observation, related by appropriate methods of inference.”

May Economic Theory Development Method Observation Defined Analysis Related Appropriate Inference Econometrics

Author:Paul Samuelson

“Historical science is not worse, more restricted, or less capable of achieving firm conclusions because experiment, prediction, and subsumption under invariant laws of nature do not represent its usual working methods. The sciences of history use a different mode of explanation, rooted in the comparative and observational richness in our data. We cannot see a past event directly, but science is usually based on inference, not unvarnished observation (you don't see electrons, gravity, or black holes either).”

“[T]ruly grand and powerful theories [...] do not and cannot rest upon single observations. Evolution is an inference from thousands of independent sources, the only conceptual structure that can make unified sense of all this disparate information. The failure of a particular claim usually records a local error, not the bankruptcy of a central theory. [...] If I mistakenly identify your father's brother as your own dad, you don't become genealogically rootless and created de novo. You still have a father; we just haven't located him properly.”

Ifs Stills Father Powerful Records Havens Information Particular Brother Theory Source Evolution Dad Claims Independent Structure Errors Locals Observation Bankruptcy Unified Inference

Author:Stephen Jay Gould

“Since reasoning , or inference, the principal subject of logic, is an operation which usually takes place by means of words , and in complicated cases can take place in no other way: those who have not a thorough insight into both the signification and purpose of words, will be under chances, amounting almost to certainty, of reasoning or inferring incorrectly.”

Way Mean Purpose Chance Cases Subjects Logic Insight Complicated Certainty Operations Reasoning Principal Thorough Inference

Book:A System Of Logic, Ratiocinative And Inductive: Mill's Works

Source: A System Of Logic, Ratiocinative And Inductive: Mill's Works

“Under my definition, a scientific theory is a proposed explanation which focuses or points to physical, observable data and logical inferences. There are many things throughout the history of science which we now think to be incorrect which nonetheless would fit that which would fit that definition. Yes, astrology is in fact one.”

Thinking Facts Theory Fit Definitions Data Explanation Logical Astrology Inference History Of Science Scientific Theory

Author:Michael Behe

“All inferences from experience... are effects of custom, not of reasoning.”

Effects Reasoning Customs Inference

Author:David Hume

“Some changes of language are to be regretted, as they lead to false inferences, and society is always a loser by mistaking names for things.”

Names Language Loser Inference

Author:James F. Cooper

“I think the reality is Michael Jackson's humanity is so deep, the implications and inferences of his art so monumentally and magnificently global, that nothing American television could do to besmirch his character could ever, if you will, deny the legitimate genius that he represents and America has responded, as indeed has the globe.”

Ifs Thinking Art Character Reality America Humanity Television Genius Deny Globes Implications Inference American Television

Author:Michael Eric Dyson

“Contemporary philosophers have exercised themselves with the problem of our knowledge of other minds. Enmeshed in the dogma of the ghost in the machine, they have found it impossible to discover any logically satisfactory evidence warranting one person in believing that there exist minds other than his own. I can witness what your body does, but I cannot witness what your mind does, and my pretensions to infer from what your body does to what your mind does all collapse, since the premises for such inferences are either inadequate or unknowable.”

Mind Believe Persons Doe I Can Problem Body Found Impossible Evidence Machines Philosopher Your Body Ghost Contemporary Witness Collapse Dogma Premises Inadequate Pretension Inference

Book:The Concept of Mind

Source: The Concept of Mind

“Logic is justly considered the basis of all other sciences, even if only for the reason that in every argument we employ concepts taken from the field of logic, and that ever correct inference proceeds in accordance with its laws.”

Ifs Reason Law Taken Fields Concepts Argument Logic Bases Inference

Author:Alfred Tarski

“Knowledge about limitations of your data collection process affects what inferences you can draw from the data.”

Process Draws Data Limitation Collections Inference Data Collection

Book:Anthropic Bias: Observation Selection Effects in Science and Philosophy

Source: Anthropic Bias: Observation Selection Effects in Science and Philosophy

“Suppose that the organism is given the problem of determining the analysis of a stimulus at a certain level of representation - e.g., the problem of determining which sequence of words a given utterance encodes. Since, in the general case, transducer outputs underdetermine perceptual analyses, we can think of the solution of such problems as involving processes of nondemonstrative inference. In particular, we can think of each input system as a computational mechanism which projects and confirms a certain class of hyputheses on the basis of a certain body of data.”

“While no inference is intended here, it is worth noting, in connection with Milton Friedman's comment that "Kelso just turned Marx upside down," that it is not necessarily amiss to turn a fellow upside down if that in fact straightens out his thinking.”

Ifs Thinking Facts Wisdom Turns Politics Economy Connections Fellows Liberalism Comment Upside Down Milton Inference

Author:Louis O. Kelso

“The basic formulation, or bare-bones mechanics, of natural selection is a disarmingly simple argument, based on three undeniable facts (overproduction of offspring, variation, and heritability) and one syllogistic inference (natural selection, or the claim that organisms enjoying differential reproductive success will, on average, be those variants that are fortuitously better adapted to changing local environments, and that these variants will then pass their favored traits to offspring by inheritance).”

“You put three facts together - that all organisms produce more offspring that can survive, that there's variation among organisms, and that at least some of that variation is inherited - and the syllogistic inference is natural selection.”

Facts Together Three Natural Produce Organisms Selection Variation Natural Selection Offspring Inference

Author:Stephen Jay Gould

“It is a false principle that because we are entirely occupied with ourselves, we must equally occupy the thoughts of others. The contrary inference is the fair one.”

Principles Fairs Contrary Egotism Inference

Book:Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)

Source: Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)

“Second, I use inference from technical studies and theories in order to provide practical information for therapists. Those thoughts are several steps removed from scientific validity.”

Use Order Steps Study Information Theory Practicals Therapists Validity Inference

Author:Virgil Miller Newton

“The more guidance a central bank can provide the public about how policy is likely to evolve the greater the chance that market participants will make appropriate inferences.”

Chance Greater Policy Evolve Guidance Appropriate Participants Central Banks Inference

Author:Ben Bernanke

“If he's - the inference is that somehow he thinks slavery is a - is a noble institution I would - I would strongly reject that assumption - that John Ashcroft is a openminded, inclusive person.”

Ifs Thinking Persons Humor Political Institutions Slavery Noble Assumption Rejects Political Humor Inference

Author:George W. Bush

“With all this talk about the supposed strain in relations [with the Soviet Union], there is an inference that somehow it is our fault. But we didn't kill Russian civilians by shooting down a civilian airplane. We didn't attempt to conquer an adjacent country to ours. We didn't walk out on negotiations and refuse to give a date for when we would resume.”

Giving War Country Walks Cold Relation Unions Faults Refuse Conquer Shooting Soviet Airplane Cold War Soviet Union Negotiation Strain Civilians Resumes Inference

Author:Ronald Reagan

“A delicate, inexorable lattice of inferences began to assemble themselves, like a crystal, in the old man's mind, shivering, catching the light in glints and surmises.”

Men Mind Light Old Man Delicate Crystals Catching Inference Inexorable

Author:Michael Chabon

“In all aspects of life... we define our reality in terms of metaphors and then proceed to act on the basis of the metaphors. We draw inferences, set goals, make commitments, and execute plans, all on the basis of how we in part structure our experience, consciously and unconsciously, by means of metaphor.”

Mean Reality Goal Term Plans Draws Commitment Aspect Bases Structure Metaphor Setting Goals Aspects Of Life Inference

Author:George Lakoff

“But Thee, but Thee, O sovereign Seer of time, But Thee, O poets' Poet, Wisdom's Tongue, But Thee, O man's best Man, O love's best Love, O perfect life in perfect labor writ, O all men's Comrade, Servant, King, or Priest, -- What IF or YET, what mole, what flaw, what lapse, What least defect or shadow of defect, What rumor, tattled by an enemy, Of inference loose, what lack of grace Even in torture's grasp, or sleep's, or death's -- Oh, what amiss may I forgive in Thee, Jesus, good Paragon, Thou Crystal Christ?”

Source: Poems of Sidney Lanier

“When I was twelve years old I thought up an odd trinity: namely, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Devil. My inference wasthat God, in contemplating himself, created the second person of the godhead; but that, in order to be able to contemplate himself, he had to contemplate, and thus to create, his opposite.--With this I began to do philosophy.”

Years Persons Philosophy God Able Order Father Son Devil Opposites Odd Twelve Contemplating Trinity Inference

Author:Friedrich Nietzsche

“The inference is, that God has restated the superiority of the West. God always does like that when a thousand white people surround one dark one. Dark people are always "bad" when they do not admit the Divine Plan like that. A certain Javanese man who sticks up for Indonesian Independence is very lowdown by the papers, and suspected of being a Japanese puppet.”

Source: I Love Myself when I Am Laughing ... and Then Again when I Am Looking Mean and Impressive: A Zora Neale Hurston Reader

“I shouldn't want you to be surprised, or to draw any particular inference from my making speeches, or not making speeches, out there. I don't recall any candidate for President that ever injured himself very much by not talking.”

Want President Talking Particular Speech Draws Candidates Recalls Injured Not Talking Inference

Book:TALKATIVE PRESIDENT OFF

Source: TALKATIVE PRESIDENT OFF

“We shall say that we have acquaintance with anything of which we are directly aware, without the intermediary of any process of inference of any knowledge of truths.”

Language Process Acquaintance Inference

Book:The Problems of Philosophy

Source: The Problems of Philosophy

“Whatever we know without inference is mental.”

Knows Knowledge Inference

Book:Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Value

Source: Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Value

“It is difficult to distinguish deduction from what in other circumstances is called problem-solving. And concept learning, inference, and reasoning by analogy are all instances of inductive reasoning. (Detectives typically induce, rather than deduce.) None of these things can be done separately from each other, or from anything else. They are pseudo-categories.”

Done Problem Difficult Circumstances Concepts Instance Reasoning Categories Problem Solving Detectives Analogies Pseudo Deductions Inference

Book:To Think: In Language, Learning and Education

Source: To Think: In Language, Learning and Education

“The very foundation of our science is only an inference; far the whole of it rests an the unprovable assumption that, all through the inferred lapse of time which the inferred performance of inferred geological processes involves, they have been going on in a manner consistent with the laws of nature as we know them now.”

Knows Has Beens Whole Law Process Performances Foundation Assumption Consistent Laws Of Nature Lapses Inference

Author:William Morris Davis

“In drawing an inference or conclusion from facts proved, regard must always be had to the nature of the particular case, and the facility that appears to be afforded, either of explanation or contradiction. No person is to be required to explain or contradict, until enough has been proved to warrant a reasonable and just conclusion against him, in the absence of explanation or contradiction.”

Persons Has Beens Enough Facts Cases Particular Regard Absence Drawing Conclusion Explanation Reasonable Contradiction Facility Warrants Inference

Author:Tony Abbott

“The theory that the man who raises corn does a more important piece of work than the woman who makes it into bread is absurd. The inference is that the men alone render useful service. But neither man nor woman eats these things until the woman has prepared it.”

Men Doe Important Pieces He Man Theory Raises Prepared Equality Bread Absurd Corn Inference

Author:Ida Tarbell

“Nothing fails like success, because we do not learn anything from it. We only learn from failure, but we do not always learn the right things from failure. If there is a failure of expectations, that is, if the messages that we receive are not the same as those we expected, we can make three possible inferences.”

Ifs Three Failing Messages Expectations Expected Right Thing Inference Learning From Failure

Author:Kenneth E. Boulding

“Women never reason, or, if they do, they either draw correct inferences from wrong premises, or wrong inferences from correct premises; and they always poke the fire from the top.”

Ifs Reason Fire Draws Premises Poke Inference

Author:Richard Whately

“I pray that I may never meddle, interfere, dictate, give advice that is not wanted, or assist when my services are not needed. If I can help people, I'll do it by giving them a chance to help themselves; and if I can uplift or inspire, let it be by example, inference and suggestion, rather than by injunction and dictation. That is to say, I desire to be Radiant -- to Radiate Life!”

People Ifs Giving May I Can Helping Wanted Desire Chance Advice Example Inspire Praying Needed Uplifting Interfere Suggestions I Pray Radiant Inference Dictation

Author:Elbert Hubbard

“People's conceptions about themselves and the nature of things are developed and verified through four different processes: direct experience of the effects produced by their actions, vicarious experience of the effects produced by somebody else's actions, judgments voiced by others, and derivation of further knowledge from what they already know by using rules of inference”

People Knows Different Action Process Four Effects Judgment Direct Conception Inference Self Efficacy Vicarious

Author:Albert Bandura

“For many activities, people cannot rely solely on themselves in evaluating their ability level because such judgments require inferences from probabilistic indicants of talent about which they may have limited knowledge. Self-appraisals are, therefore, partly based on the opinions of others who presumably possess evaluative competence”

People May Self Ability Levels Opinion Talent Activity Judgment Rely Competence Inference Self Efficacy Appraisal Limited Knowledge

Author:Albert Bandura

“I think we have reached a level in society - with Helen Mirren playing The Queen - when we're not surprised any more. We don't mention names. Yes, it's obvious by inference. But we don't mention names and the film is not up to point fingers at Royalty.”

Thinking Film Names Levels Fingers Obvious Queens Royalty Inference Helen

Author:David Suchet

“I may remark parenthetically that the modern apparatus of the theory of small samples, once it goes beyond the determination of its own specially defined parameters and becomes a method for positive statistical inference in new cases, does not inspire me with any confidence unless it is applied by a statistician by whom the main elements of the dynamics of the situation are either explicitly known or implicitly felt.”

Source: Cybernetics Or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine

“Inferences of Science and Common Sense differ from those of deductive logic and mathematics in a very important respect, namely, when the premises are true and the reasoning correct, the conclusion is only probable.”

Important Common Logic Mathematics Common Sense Conclusion Reasoning Premises Inference

Author:Bertrand Russell

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Inference Quotes