Q.Classify each of the following statements as Positive or Normative, giving a reason:

Reasoning from particular facts to a general conclusion is the inductive (empirical) method — option (b).

In the Tamil Nadu HSC Class-11 Economics syllabus, two methods of economic reasoning are studied:

• Deductive method — moves from the general to the particular. It starts with a few accepted assumptions or general principles and logically derives particular conclusions (the abstract, analytical, a priori method).
• Inductive method — moves from the particular to the general. It gathers many specific facts and observations and, through generalisation, arrives at a general law or principle (the empirical, a posteriori method).

So "reasoning from particular to general" describes induction. The other options do not name a direction of reasoning at all: positive economics deals with what is (facts) and normative economics with what ought to be (value judgements) — these classify statements, not methods of inference.

Reasoning from the particular to the general is the inductive method; the reverse (general to particular) is the deductive method.

Economists use two broad methods of reasoning:

• Inductive method — starts from particular facts and real-world observations and, by generalising from many such instances, arrives at a general principle or economic law. It is empirical and data-based (for example, observing that many households buy less of a good when its price rises, and generalising this into the law of demand).
• Deductive method — starts from certain general assumptions or premises and logically works down to particular conclusions.

Because the question describes moving from the particular to the general, it is induction. Positive and normative economics (this concept area in the Tamil Nadu HSC Class 11 Economics syllabus) rests on such methods of enquiry.