Editing Circular reasoning (section)

==The problem of induction==
[[Joel Feinberg]] and [[Russ Shafer-Landau]] note that "using the scientific method to judge the scientific method is circular reasoning". Scientists attempt to discover the laws of nature and to predict what will happen in the future, based on those laws. The laws of nature are arrived at through [[inductive reasoning]]. [[David Hume]]'s [[problem of induction]] demonstrates that one must appeal to the ''[[uniformitarianism|principle of the uniformity of nature]]'' if they seek to justify their implicit assumption that laws which held true in the past will also hold true in the future. Since the principle of the uniformity of nature is itself an inductive principle, any justification for induction must be circular. But as [[Bertrand Russell]] observed, "The method of 'postulating' what we want has many advantages; they are the same as the advantages of theft over honest toil".<ref>{{cite book | title=Reason and responsibility: readings in some basic problems of philosophy | publisher=Cengage Learning | year=2008 | pages=257–58 | isbn=9780495094920 | last1=Feinberg | first1=Joel | last2=Shafer-Landau | first2=Russ}}</ref>