Inference

Inference

Inference is a weird thing... an educated guess. Consider this-

"It is a hypothesis that the sun will rise tomorrow: and this means that we do not know whether it will rise."
-Ludwig Wittgenstein

Have you ever thought about that? We make an inference that the sun will rise at 6:30 am. How do we know? Because it has risen at approximately 6:30 am for thousands of years. One could say that the sun rising at 6:30 am tomorrow is common knowledge, but is it knowledge? It is an inference, but is that knowledge?

I started to think about this during data collection for my ethnography. I could infer something, but be totally wrong. My incorrect inferences were incorrect knowledge then, correct?

I guess there is no question. Just an epiphany.