The Problem of Logic |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
abstract accepted affirmative Algol antecedent application argument Aristotle assertion called categorical proposition causal cause character Classification concept conclusion concrete connexion connotation connotation and denotation consider Contradiction contradictory Contrapositive copula Deductive Deductive Inference defined definition differentia disjunctive proposition distinction division effect Enthymeme Enumerative Induction essential exclusive expressed fact fallacy Formal fundamental given Hence hypothesis Hypothetical Syllogism ibid ideal Identity implied important indeterminate Inductive Inference instance is-not J. S. Mill judgment kind Laws of Thought major premiss meaning Method Mill Mill's nature negative Novum Organum object observation particular plants point of view possible postulate precisely predicate principle purpose question rational animal reason reference rejected relation relevant rule S's are P's S's are-not P's Science scientific sense Sorites species statement subject-term summum genus Syllogism term theory tion triangle true truth undistributed valid verification vide word
Popular passages
Page 415 - If an instance in which the phenomenon under investigation occurs, and an instance in which it does not occur, have every circumstance in common save one, that one occurring only in the former; the circumstance in which alone the two instances differ is the effect, or the cause, or an indispensable part of the cause, of the phenomenon.
Page 315 - I have steadily endeavoured to keep my mind free so as to give up any hypothesis, however much beloved (and I cannot resist forming one on every subject), as soon as facts are shown to be opposed to it.
Page 391 - I had, also, during many years followed a golden rule, namely, that whenever a published fact, a new observation or thought came across me, which was opposed to my general results, to make a memorandum of it without fail and at once; for I had found by experience that such facts and thoughts were far more apt to escape from the memory than favorable ones.
Page 283 - The only proof capable of being given that an object is visible, is that people actually see it; the only proof that a sound is audible, is that people hear it: and so of the other sources of our experience.
Page 456 - The uniformity in the succession of events, otherwise called the law of causation, must be received not as a law of the universe, but of that portion of it only which is within the range of our means of sure observation, with a reasonable degree of extension to adjacent cases.
Page 417 - Whatever phenomenon varies in any manner, whenever another phenomenon varies in some particular manner, is either a cause or an effect of that phenomenon, or is connected with it through some fact of causation.
Page 395 - If two or more instances of the phenomenon under investigation have only one circumstance in common, the circumstance in which alone all the instances agree is the cause (or effect) of the given phenomenon.
Page 314 - I worked on true Baconian principles, and without any theory collected facts on a wholesale scale...
Page 386 - The total energy of any material system is a quantity which can neither be increased nor diminished by any action between the parts of the system, though it may be transformed into any of the forms of which energy is susceptible.
Page 314 - I happened to read for amusement ' Malthus on Population,' and being well prepared to appreciate the struggle for existence which everywhere goes on from long-continued observation of the habits of animals and plants, it at once struck me that under these circumstances favourable variations would tend to be preserved, and unfavourable ones to be destroyed. The result of this would be the formation of new species. Here then I had at last got a theory by which to work...