4 - Methods of analysis

Summary

Introduction

The principles of inductive logic are the common tools of practical reasoning and are important to anyone who must make decisions based upon incomplete and fallible data. These tools are specially important in many professions. Society holds professionals to a higher standard of reasoning because, ordinarily, their decisions can significantly affect the interests of individuals or society as a whole, and they are supposed to be competent to make such decisions. In one view, the highest standards may reasonably be required of doctors and lawyers. They undertake to solve problems of great importance for individuals, and their work in the aggregate is critical to society.

Every profession that engages in fact analysis and reasoning must develop ways of recording and organizing the data in forms suitable for analysis and use. This is surely true for lawyers. At every stage, the lawyer must engage in analysis. Has my client provided me with sufficient facts to state a claim for relief or a basis for a defense? What additional evidence should I seek to test and strengthen my client's case? Given the evidence available to both sides, can the data be marshaled to persuade the relevant decision-maker that my client is entitled to satisfactory relief?

Analysis must ordinarily precede use, and a system designed to record and organize data in a manner that facilitates analysis will ordinarily differ significantly from a system designed to facilitate the effective, post-analysis use of that data.