The principles of science

Science arises from the discovery of Identity amidst Diversity. The process may be described in different words, but our language must always imply the presence of one common an...

Every proposition expresses the resemblance or difference of the things denoted by its terms. As inference treats of the relation between two or more propositions, so a proposit...

We now proceed to consider the variety of forms of propositions in which the truths of science must be expressed. I shall endeavour to show that, however diverse these forms may...

The general principle of inference having been explained in the previous chapters, and a suitable system of symbols provided, we have now before us the comparatively easy task o...

In the previous chapter I have exhibited various cases of deductive reasoning by the process of substitution, avoiding the introduction of disjunctive propositions; but we canno...

The above gives the strict logical interpretation of the sentence, and the first alternative ABC is capable of development into eight cases, according as D, E and F are or are n...

The forms of deductive reasoning as yet considered, are mostly cases of Direct Deduction as distinguished from those which we are now about to treat. The method of Indirect Dedu...

We enter in this chapter upon the second great department of logical method, that of Induction or the Inference of general from particular truths. It cannot be said that the Ind...

Not without reason did Pythagoras represent the world as ruled by number. Into almost all our acts of thought number enters, and in proportion as we can define numerically we en...

Nature may be said to be evolved from the monotony of non-existence by the creation of diversity. It is plausibly asserted that we are conscious only so far as we experience dif...

The subject upon which we now enter must not be regarded as an isolated and curious branch of speculation. It is the necessary basis of the judgments we make in the prosecution...

I prefer to dispense altogether with this obscure word belief, and to say that the theory of probability deals with *quantity of knowledge*, an expression of which a precise exp...

We have inquired into the nature of perfect induction, whereby we pass backwards from certain observed combinations of events, to the logical conditions governing such combinati...

We have hitherto considered the theory of probability only in its simple deductive employment, in which it enables us to determine from given conditions the probable character o...

As physical science advances, it becomes more and more accurately quantitative. Questions of simple logical fact after a time resolve themselves into questions of degree, time,...

As we have seen, instruments of measurement are only means of comparison between one magnitude and another, and as a general rule we must assume some one arbitrary magnitude, in...

In the two preceding chapters we have been engaged in considering how a phenomenon may be accurately measured and expressed. So delicate and complex an operation is a measuremen...

All results of the measurement of continuous quantity can be only approximately true. Were this assertion doubted, it could readily be proved by direct experience. If any person...

Although the average when employed in its proper sense of a fictitious mean, represents no really existing quantity, it is yet of the highest scientific importance, as enabling...

To bring error itself under law might seem beyond human power. He who errs surely diverges from law, and it might be deemed hopeless out of error to draw truth. One of the most...

ALL knowledge proceeds originally from experience. Using the name in a wide sense, we may say that experience comprehends all that we *feel*, externally or internally--the aggre...

We may now consider the great advantages which we enjoy in examining the combinations of phenomena when things are within our reach and capable of being experimented on. We are...

Experiments may be of two kinds, experiments of simple fact, and experiments of quantity. In the first class of experiments we combine certain conditions, and wish to ascertain...

In order that we may gain a true understanding of the kind, degree, and value of the knowledge which we acquire by experimental investigation, it is requisite that we should be...

We have not yet formally considered any processes of reasoning which have for their object to disclose laws of nature expressed in quantitative equations. We have been inquiring...

If the views upheld in this work be correct, all inductive investigation consists in the marriage of hypothesis and experiment. When facts are in our possession, we frame an hyp...

Inductive investigation, as we have seen, consists in the union of hypothesis and experiment, deductive reasoning being the link by which experimental results are made to confir...

In the preceding chapter we found that facts may be classed under four heads as regards their connection with theory, and our powers of explanation or prediction. The facts hith...

Society, it is supposed, has now assumed so highly developed a form, that what was accomplished in past times by the solitary exertions of a great intellect, may now be worked o...

I have endeavoured to show in preceding chapters that all inductive reasoning is an inverse application of deductive reasoning, and consists in demonstrating that the consequenc...

As we have seen in the previous chapter, generalisation passes insensibly into reasoning by analogy, and the difference is one of degree. We are said to generalise when we view...

Faraday was able to frame some notion of matter in a fourth condition, which should be to gas what gas is to liquid.[539] Such substance, he thought, would not fall far short of...

If science consists in the detection of identity and the recognition of uniformity existing in many objects, it follows that the progress of science depends upon the study of ex...

The extensive subject of Classification has been deferred to a late part of this treatise, because it involves questions of difficulty, and did not seem naturally to fall into a...

Before concluding a work on the Principles of Science, it will not be inappropriate to add some remarks upon the limits and ultimate bearings of the knowledge which we may acqui...

errror → error incapadle → incapable interpretion → interpretation justifed → justified longtitude → longitude Marriotte → Mariotte melecules → molecules Meropolitana → Metropol...