| 释义 |
inference|ˈɪnfərəns|
[ad. med.L. inferentia (Abelard Œuvr. inéd. ed. Cousin, 325, 328) (cf. It. inferenza ‘an inference, an implying’, Florio 1611), f. inferent-em, pr. pple. of inferre to infer: used instead of cl. L. illātio.]
1. a. The action or process of inferring; the drawing of a conclusion from known or assumed facts or statements; esp. in Logic, the forming of a conclusion from data or premisses, either by inductive or deductive methods; reasoning from something known or assumed to something else which follows from it; = illation. Also (with pl.), a particular act of inferring; the logical form in which this is expressed.
In English, the word appears first in the general sense, not as a term of formal Logic. In Logical treatises, it is found first applied to the deductive process of the syllogism, and its conclusion (mediate inference); its application to the inferring of a conclusion from a single proposition by conversion, opposition, permutation, or the like (immediate inference), and its use in the logic of induction (inductive inference) appear later, and are not accepted by all logicians. On the other hand, some restrict the term to induction, and deny that either a syllogism or an immediate inference can properly be called an inference.
1594Hooker Eccl. Pol. iii. xi. §10 These are but weake and feeble disputes for the inference of that Conclusion which is intended. 1605Lond. Prodigal iii. ii, 'Tis merely unsound unprofitable idle inference. 1643Milton Divorce ii. ix, ‘Therefore shall a man cleave to his wife’..which we see is no absolute command, but with an inference, Therefore. 1736Butler Analogy ii. vi. 308 Religion is..a matter of deduction and inference. 1803Ld. Eldon in Vesey's Rep. VIII. 436 That is too thin an evidence of intention to afford much inference. 1827Whately Logic iv, The Province of Reasoning. iii. (heading), Of Inference and Proof. 1837–8Sir W. Hamilton Logic xv. (1860) I. 279 Inference or illation, indicates the carrying out into the last proposition what was virtually contained in the antecedent judgements. Ibid. II. App. 255 There are various Immediate Inferences of one proposition from another..The first of these is Conversion. 1843Mill Logic ii. i. §3 Cases of inference in the proper acceptation of the term, those in which we set out from known truths, to arrive at others really distinct from them. Ibid. iv. i. §2 In almost every act of our perceiving faculties, observation and inference are intimately blended. 1864Bowen Logic vi. 148 Inference or Reasoning is that act of Pure Thought whereby one Judgment is derived from another, or from two others. 1866Fowler Deduct. Logic iii. i. (1869) 70 In any inference, we argue either to something already implied in the premisses or not: if the latter, the inference is inductive, if the former deductive. If the deductive inference contain only a single premiss, it is immediate; if it contain two premisses, and the conclusion be drawn from these jointly, it is mediate, and is called a syllogism. 1874Stubbs Const. Hist. I. i. 2 This..is not a matter of inference. It is a recorded fact of history.
b. inference rule, in a system of logic: any rule permitting inferences of a specified form.
1962Clark & Welsh Introd. Logic ii. 93 We lay down the following cluster of inference rules. 1964Kalish & Montague Logic 14 From the second and third lines of the derivation we may infer ‘Q’ by means of an inference rule. 1965B. Mates Elem. Logic vi. 93 We need a reasonably small group of simple inference-rules.
2. That which is inferred, a conclusion drawn from data or premisses. Also, an implication; the conclusion that one is intended to draw. Cf. infer v. 4.
1612Bacon Ess., Judicature (Arb.) 452 Iudges must beware of hard constructions and strained inferences. 1692South 12 Serm. (1697) I. 479, I shall draw some usefull Inferences, by way of Application, from the Premises. 1724Watts Logic Introd. Wks. 1813 VII. 315 These inferences, or conclusions, are the effects of reasoning, and the three propositions, taken all altogether, are called syllogism or argument. 1788Reid Aristotle's Log. vi. §1. 128 When a child first draws an inference, or perceives the force of an inference drawn by another, we may call this the birth of reason. 1828Macaulay Ess., Hallam (1851) I. 55 When it wishes to avoid a disagreeable inference from an admitted proposition. 1843Mill Logic Introd. §5 To draw inferences has been said to be the great business of life. 1876Gladstone Homeric Synchr. 69 The natural inference is that the wheel was just beginning to be known. 1933D. L. Sayers Hangman's Holiday 147 ‘I don't know if you realise, Mr. Egg,’ observed the inspector, ‘the bearing, or, as I might say, the inference of what you said just now.’ 1972P. H. Kocher Master of Middle-Earth (1973) v. 82 These four are named ‘first’, with the inference that they deserve priority. 1973Daily Tel. (Colour Suppl.) 5 Oct. 7/2 The main inference of the propaganda is that unless we adopt the metric system Britain will lose export orders.
†3. That which a thing leads to or brings in its train. Obs. rare.
1673Lady's Calling i. i. §16 This is evident enough if we look only on the meer surface of the crime [Drunkenness]; but if we dive farther into its inferences and adherencies, the affirmation is yet more irrefragable. |