Analysis of Mr. Mill's System of LogicStebbing, W. (William)
Philosophy
Analysis of Mr. Mill's System of Logic
Stebbing, W. (William)
Logic, Modern -- 19th century; Mill, John Stuart, 1806-1873
1. The former, which is called Non-observation, is a case, not of a
positive mis-estimate of evidence, or of the proper faculties (whether
the senses or reason) not having been employed, but simply of the
non-employment of any of the faculties. It arises ([Greek: a]) from
neglect of instances. Sometimes this is when there is a stronger motive
to remember the instances on the one side, and the observers have
neglected the principle of the Elimination of Chance. Hence (the mind,
as Bacon says, being more moved by affirmative than by negative
instances) the belief in predictions, e.g. about the weather, because
they occasionally turn out correct; and the credit of the proverb, that
'Fortune favours fools,' since the cases of a wise man's success through
luck are forgotten in his more numerous successes through genius. But a
preconceived opinion is the _chief_ cause why opposing instances are
overlooked. Hence originate the errors about physical facts (e.g. of
Copernicus's foes, and friends, too, about the falling stone), and _à
fortiori_, on moral, social, and religious subjects, where yet stronger
feelings are involved.
The fallacy of Non-observation may occur ([Greek: b]) from neglect, not
of the material instances wholly, but of some material facts in them,
e.g. in cases of cures by quack remedies (such as Kenelm Digby's
'sympathetic powder'), of some attendant fact (as exclusion of air from
a wound, rest, regimen, and the like) which really worked the cure.
Sometimes the neglected fact is one ascertainable, not by the senses,
but by reasoning, which has been overlooked. Thus, Cousin's argument
that, if the sole end of punishment were to prevent crime by
intimidating intending criminals, the punishment of the innocent,
indiscriminately with the guilty, would have the same effect, ignores
the fact that the innocent would then be equally intimidated, and so the
punishment would be of no use as an example to criminals. So, in
Political Economy, where the effects of a cause often consist of two
sets of phenomena, the one obvious, the other deeper under the surface,
and exactly contrary, the latter is often neglected. This was why the
rapidly spent capital of the prodigal was supposed formerly to employ
more labour than the invested savings of the parsimonious, and the
purchase of native goods to encourage native industry more than the
purchase of foreign.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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