PREFACE. THIS book originated in the class-room, where the author was teaching Dr. Fowler's Elements of Inductive Logic. Its ambition is to reproduce some of the excellences of that bright and interesting book, while substituting a sounder analysis of fundamental principles. The numerous extracts, introduced in the manner of Dr. Fowler, are designed both to elucidate the subject and to acquaint the student with the views and literary styles of a large variety of philosophical and scientific writers. Wherever anything has been found already well expressed, quotation has been preferred to restatement. The familiar manuals of inductive logic have been freely drawn upon, and their rich store of illustrations has been used without hesitation. Credit has generally been given; but sometimes it was impossible to make specific acknowledgment. Mr. Mill is the greatest of all modern writers upon inductive logic, and upon his famous work all later authors have largely built. The school manuals are, for the most part, but outlines of his doctrine. But Mr. Mill's mind was a very peculiar one. It was impossible for one so acute not to see the truth, or for one so candid not to state it. But these statements of truth are rather his obiter dicta, while his main contention is often some paradox. A "higher critic" might easily divide the Logic into two documents, by authors of opposing tendencies. An outline of Mill's system, like Dr. Fowler's, does him injustice; for it is just in what he thinks most important, that he is weakest. Freely acknowledging that most of what is true in this book has been learned from Mr. Mill, the author yet puts it forth with the hope that it will be found to contain a real, though small, contribution to the progress of science. Inductive Logic defined, 1. The pure sciences, I. The applied sciences, 2. Inductive and Deductive Logic not mutually exclusive, 2. Relations of Inductive and Deductive Logic, 3. The discovery of facts PAGE A fact defined, 6. Substantive facts and facts of relation, 6. Facts of Resemblance, 7. Facts of Coexistence, 7. Facts of Causation, 7. Facts Observation defined, 9. Bacon quoted, 9. Observation the essential characteristic of Induction, 9. Observation and Experiment contrasted, Fowler quoted, 10. Difficulty of making trustworthy observations, II. Dr. Darwin's supposed gin, 11. Confusion of perceptions and in- An Induction defined, 14. Various kinds of inductions, 14. Uniform- ities in the existing order, 15. How we discover a uniformity, 15. The mill and stream, 16. Cliffs and crows of England, 17. Does induction rest upon the veracity of God? 17. Inductio per Enumerationem Sim- plicem, 17. Correcting one generalization by another, 19. Uniformity of Nature defined, 19. Degrees of assurance in primary inductions, 20. |