A Class Room Logic: Deductive and Inductive, with Special Application to the Science and Art of TeachingMcNair, George Hastings
Philosophy
A Class Room Logic: Deductive and Inductive, with Special Application to the Science and Art of Teaching
McNair, George Hastings
Logic
(a) The methods of Agreement and Difference are complementary as may
be discerned by comparing their characteristic features: In Agreement
the phenomenon _always occurs_; in Difference the phenomenon _does
not always occur_: In Agreement there is one _invariable_ antecedent;
whereas in Difference there is one _variable_ antecedent: In Agreement
the other antecedents are more or less _variable_; but in Difference
the other antecedents are more or less _invariable_.
(b) According to Mill the Method of Agreement insists that what _can
be eliminated_ is _not_ connected; whereas the Method of Difference
implies that what _cannot be eliminated is_ connected.
(c) The Method of Agreement is more a method of observation, since
it is chiefly concerned with the _discovery of causes_. The Method of
Difference is distinctly a method of experiment, because its usual aim
is to _discover effects_.
(d) The Method of Agreement is so called because the object is to
compare several instances to determine in what respect they _agree_;
but in the case of Difference instances are compared to determine in
what respects they _differ_.
(e) The conclusions of the Method of Difference involve greater
certainty than those of Agreement and, therefore, the former method
should be adopted when there is a choice.
=4. THE JOINT METHOD OF AGREEMENT AND DIFFERENCE.=
(1) Principle stated.
The uncertainty of the conclusions of Agreement and the impossibility
at times of employing directly the Method of Difference, give rise to
the use of the combination of Agreement and Difference known as the
Joint Method. As stated by Mill, the principle conditioning the Joint
Method is this: “If two or more instances in which the phenomenon
occurs have only one circumstance in common, while two or more
instances in which it does not occur have nothing in common save the
absence of that circumstance, the circumstance in which alone the two
sets of instances differ is the effect or the cause or an indispensable
part of the cause, of the phenomenon.” More briefly the notion may
be stated in this wise: _Among many instances, if one circumstance is
invariably present when the phenomenon occurs, and invariably absent
when the phenomenon does not occur this circumstance is probably the
cause or the effect of the phenomenon._
This principle differs from the one underlying the Method of Difference
in that the instances considered are more varied and more numerous. The
principle of Difference requires but _two_ sets of instances, while the
Joint Method demands at least three; _two_ when the phenomenon occurs
and _one_ when it does not occur. A study of the symbolizations and
illustrations will clarify this distinction.
(2) Joint Method symbolized.
If we use circumstances and phenomenon in place of antecedents and
consequent, then one symbolization may be made to stand for
ascertaining either the invariable antecedent, or the invariable
consequent.
_Circumstances_ _Phenomenon_
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