The duck test is a humorous term for a form of inductive reasoning. Induction or inductive reasoning, sometimes called inductive logic, is the process of Reasoning in which the premises of an argument are believed It can be explained this way:
If a bird looks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.
The test implies that a person can figure out the true nature of an unknown subject by observing this subject's readily identifiable traits. It is sometimes used to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be.
The duck test is common to the United States and the United Kingdom, where it is sometimes called the "British Standard (BS) Duck Test" in imitation of the system of national standards. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located British Standards are produced by BSI British Standards, a division of BSI Group that is incorporated under a Royal Charter and is formally designated
History
It is unclear who coined the saying. Early references include:
- Richard Cardinal Cushing used the phrase in 1964 in reference to Fidel Castro. Richard Cushing ( August 24 1895 &mdash November 2 1970) was an American Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (born August 13 1926 is a Cuban revolutionary leader who was prime minister of Cuba from December 1959 to December 1976 and then president until
- Richard Cunningham Patterson Jr., United States ambassador to Guatemala, during the Cold War in 1950, used the phrase when he accused the Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán government of being Communist. Richard Cunningham Patterson Jr (1886-1966 was a US Ambassador This article contains several lists of Ambassadors from the United States. Guatemala (República de Guatemala) is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west the Pacific Ocean to the southwest Cold War is the state of conflict tension and competition that existed between the United States and the Soviet Union (USSR and their respective allies from the Year 1950 ( MCML) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Colonel Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán ( September 14, 1913 &ndash January 27, 1971) was the President of Guatemala from 1951 to 1954 when Communism is a Socioeconomic structure that promotes the establishment of an egalitarian, classless, stateless Society based
Patterson explained his reasoning as follows:
"Suppose you see a bird walking around in a farm yard. This bird has no label that says 'duck'. But the bird certainly looks like a duck. Also, he goes to the pond and you notice that he swims like a duck. Then he opens his beak and quacks like a duck. Well, by this time you have probably reached the conclusion that the bird is a duck, whether he's wearing a label or not. " (Immerman 1982, p. 102)
To Patterson and other United States officials, many traits of the Arbenz government showed that it was determined to implement revolutionary reforms. In their view, the Arbenz government's censorship of the dissident press, preference of state investment over private capital investment, agrarian reform, anti-imperialist measures, and democratic reforms (such as the legalization of labor unions) qualified it as communist. Censorship is the suppression of speech or deletion of communicative material which may be considered objectionable harmful or sensitive as determined by a censor Investment or investing is a term with several closely-related meanings in Business management, Finance and Economics, related to saving Agrarian reform can refer either narrowly to government-initiated or government-backed redistribution of Agricultural land (see Land reform) or can refer more broadly Anti-imperialism, strictly speaking is a term that may be applied to or movement opposed to some form of Imperialism. A trade union or labour union is an organization of workers who have banded together to achieve common goals in key areas such as wages hours and working conditions forming
The term duck test is still frequently used in the United States to describe the process of attributing the identity of an unknown based on its traits, especially in certain forms of computing. End User Computing (EUC is a group of approaches to computing that aim at better integrating end users into the computing environment or that attempt to realize the potential
The test is often used to identify something that is supposedly bad, and to justify the use of inductive logic in meting out punishment.
See also
References
- Immerman, Richard H. In Computer programming, duck typing is a style of Dynamic typing in which an object's current set of methods and properties determines the valid The term elephant test refers to the ability to recognize something while being unable to describe it The identity of indiscernibles is an ontological principle which states that two or more objects or entities are identical (are one and the same entity The Phrase " I know it when I see it " is a colloquial expression by which the user attempts to categorize an observable fact or event although the category is subjective The Turing test is a proposal for a test of a Machine 's ability to demonstrate intelligence Zebra is a Slang medical term for an obscure and unlikely Diagnosis from ordinary symptoms (1982), written at Austin, Texas, The CIA in Guatemala: The Foreign Policy of Intervention, University of Texas Press
- The complete works of James Whitcomb Riley; in ten volumes, including poems and prose sketches, many of which have not heretofore been published; an authentic biography, an elaborate index and numerous illustrations in color from paintings by Howard Chandler Christy and Ethel Franklin Betts
- Cushing of Boston: A Candid Portrait. by Joseph Denver - 1965
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