ABSTRACT
Pragmatism has its own characteristic approach to the classic problem of justifying induction. This chapter considers a justification of induction articulated along strictly pragmatic lines. This Humean problem of justifying induction cuts to the very core of the problematic of scientific understanding and scientific rationality. It is worthwhile in the interests of precision to set out in detail the structure of the preceding validation of the quasi-inferential move from past to future inherent in an inductive generalization. The justification of induction is accordingly seen as ultimately pragmatic. The rule utilitarian wants to justify actions with reference to rules, these rules themselves alone being supported by utilitarian considerations. The methodological pragmatism here at issue is concerned with the pragmatic legitimation of generic methods; it is not a substantive pragmatism that seeks the establishment of specific theses or propositions about what goes on in the world.
