Harvey Spencer Lewis, afin d'éveiller notre manière de penser aux approches inductives et déductives utilisait l'exemple d'un gâteau, mais autant son aisance et son humour pour raconter les choses de vive voix était brillante, autant le message rédigé puis traduit si on le lit en français, a tendance à rendre le gâteau indigeste...

Essayons de simplifier:

En se disant: voici un gâteau, il semble constitué de farine, d'eau, de sucre, d'œufs, et préparé avec amour par telle personne, c'est une approche inductive. 

En se disant: voici un gâteau, les gâteaux sont bons à manger, celui-ci est fait pour ça, j'aime les gâteaux, je peux l'apprécier en le mangeant et d'ailleurs je vais même le manger, c'est un raisonnement déductif.
 

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le texte initial:

Now if I placed before you here on the table a very fancy cake, which had the appearance of a birthday or wedding cake, and asked each of you to step up before the cake and permit your reasoning abilities to influence your actions and thinking, there would be two things, either of which you would do. Either you would try to eat the cake, or you would study and examine it. Now the cause of your action would be found in the reasoning you did, therefore, we will stop and examine the two methods.

Those who would examine the cake would reason inductively: They would note the finish of the cake first and try to reason out the recipe for making and methods for finishing with the filling and icing. All materials used would be studied and from each step would the mind travel, until the one doing such reasoning would see the cake in its first stages, in its ingredients and parts. By such a process of reasoning, from effect to cause, a person could tell how the cake was made. Some can look at a prettily trimmed hat or gown and by reasoning backward tell just how the hat or gown was made. Detectives, when called in to fathom the mystery of a crime, look upon the result -- the finished deed -- and by reasoning backward are able to tell just how the crime was committed: when and by whom. They go backward, step by step, to the cause, and thus have a picture of every step that leads up to the crime. All this form of reasoning is inductive reasoning, so please write in your note book that:

“Inductive Reasoning is progressing from result to cause, step by step, logically.”

Now those who would come up here and see the fancy cake and immediately proceed to eat it would reason deductively. Their reasoning would be as follows: “That is a fine cake; cakes are good to eat; this one was made to eat; it was made with great care so that it is especially good and palatable; I like cake and I can enjoy it by eating it; therefore, I will eat this cake."

Anglais : "What would be your behavior in front of a cake?"
Allemand : "Wie wäre Ihr Verhalten vor einem Kuchen?"
Espagnol : "¿Cuál sería tu comportamiento frente a un pastel?"
Italien : "Qualsiasi sarebbe il tuo comportamento di fronte a una torta?"
Portugais : "Qual seria o seu comportamento diante de um bolo?"
Grec : "Ποια θα ήταν η συμπεριφορά σας μπροστά σε ένα κέικ;"