kopjes’ pig

This pig found that, on his first morning at the pig farm, he was allowed to take a swim at 9 a.m. However, being a good inductivist, he did not jump to conclusions. He waited until he had collected a large number of observations of the fact that he was allowed to take a swim at 9 a.m., and he made these observations under a wide variety of circumstances, on Wednesdays and Thursdays, on warm days and cold days, on rainy days and dry days. Each day, he added another observation statement to his list. Finally, his inductivist conscience was satisfied and he carried out an inductive inference to conclude, “I am always allowed to take a swim at 9 a.m.”. Alas, this conclusion was shown to be false in no uncertain manner when, on Christmas morning, instead of being allowed to take a swim, he had his throat cut. An inductive inference with true premises has led to a false conclusion. — Bertram Wilberforce Kopjes, 3rd Earl Kopjes