 Philosophical characteristics. In contrast to other philosophical approaches to inductive inference, learning theory does not aim to describe a universal inductive method or explicate general axioms of inductive rationality. Rather, learning theory pursues a context-dependent means-ends analysis [Steele 2010]: For a given empirical problem and a set of cognitive goals, what is the best method for achieving the goals? Most of learning theory examines  which investigative strategies reliably and efficiently lead to correct beliefs about the world.