Large-Scale Structures: Four Claims

The main claims concerning the large-scale structure of inductive inference are introduced and defended. 1. Relations of inductive support have a nonhierarchical structure. 2. Hypotheses, initially without known support, are used to erect nonhierarchical structures. 3. Locally deductive relations of support can be combined to produce an inductive totality. 4. There are self-supporting inductive structures. The remaining chapters provide further defenses of the claims and illustrations of them.