Inventors at Work, with Chapters on DiscoveryIles, George
History
Inventors at Work, with Chapters on Discovery
Iles, George
Inventions -- History; Inventors
The Knitting Faculty.
Discovery is the reward of diligence, such as that of Harvey, but not of
diligence alone. Professor William James, in his Psychology
remarks:--“The inquirer starts with a fact of which he sees the reason,
or a theory of which he sees the proof. In either case he keeps turning
the matter incessantly in his mind, until by the arousal of associate
upon associate, some habitual, some similar, one arises which he
recognizes to suit his need. This, however, may take years. No rules can
be given by which the investigator can proceed straight to his result;
but both here and in the case of reminiscence the accumulation of helps
in the way of associations may advance more rapidly by the use of
certain methods. In striving to recall a thought, for example, we may
of set purpose run through the successive classes of circumstances with
which it may possibly have been connected, trusting that when the right
member of the class has turned up it will help the thought’s revival.
. . . In scientific research this accumulation of associates has been
methodized by Mill as ‘four methods of experimental inquiry.’ By the
method of Agreement, of Difference, of Residues, and of Concomitant
Variations, we make certain lists of cases, and by ruminating these
lists in our minds the cause we seek will be more likely to emerge. But
the final stroke of discovery is only prepared, not effected by them.
The brain tracts must, of their own accord, shoot the right way at last,
or we shall still grope in darkness.”
The Detection of Likeness Beneath Diversity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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