Induction involves using many individual observations to make a generalization.
This approach can be considered to be moving "from the bottom up".
As in:
Item X has characteristic W.
Item Y has characteristic W.
Item Z has characteristic W.
Therefore, all items in the same class as X, Y, and Z should also have characteristic W.
The Risk of the Inductive Leap
One could make many individual observations:
This bee stung me. It is a hymenopteran.
This wasp stung me. It is a hymenopteran.
This fire ant stung me. It is a hymenopteran.
And come to a general conclusion:
Therefore, all hymenopterans have stingers.
But you might already see a potential pitfall here.
