The principles of science : $b a treatise on logic and scientific method — John Shaqi
The principles of science : $b a treatise on logic and scientific methodJevons, William Stanley
Philosophy
The principles of science : $b a treatise on logic and scientific method
Jevons, William Stanley
Logic; Science -- Methodology
These remarks appear to me to be well founded, and I must state why
it is that I have ventured to publish an extensive work on logic,
without properly making up my mind as to the fundamental nature of the
reasoning process. The fault after all is one of omission rather than
of commission. It is open to me on a future occasion to supply the
deficiency if I should ever feel able to undertake the task. But I do
not conceive it to be an essential part of any treatise to enter into
an ultimate analysis of its subject matter. Analyses must always end
somewhere. There were good treatises on light which described the laws
of the phenomenon correctly before it was known whether light consisted
of undulations or of projected particles. Now we have treatises on the
Undulatory Theory which are very valuable and satisfactory, although
they leave us in almost complete doubt as to what the vibrating medium
really is. So I think that, in the present day, we need a correct and
scientific exhibition of the formal laws of thought, and of the forms
of reasoning based on them, although we may not be able to enter into
any complete analysis of the nature of those laws. What would the
science of geometry be like now if the Greek geometers had decided that
it was improper to publish any propositions before they had decided
on the nature of an axiom? Where would the science of arithmetic be
now if an analysis of the nature of number itself were a necessary
preliminary to a development of the results of its laws? In recent
times there have been enormous additions to the mathematical sciences,
but very few attempts at psychological analysis. In the Alexandrian and
early mediæval schools of philosophy, much attention was given to the
nature of unity and plurality chiefly called forth by the question of
the Trinity. In the last two centuries whole sciences have been created
out of the notion of plurality, and yet speculation on the nature of
plurality has dwindled away. This present treatise contains, in the
eighth chapter, one of the few recent attempts to analyse the notion of
number itself.
If further illustration is needed, I may refer to the differential
calculus. Nobody calls in question the formal truth of the results of
that calculus. All the more exact and successful parts of physical
science depend upon its use, and yet the mathematicians who have
created so great a body of exact truths have never decided upon the
basis of the calculus. What is the nature of a limit or the nature of
an infinitesimal? Start the question among a knot of mathematicians,
and it will be found that hardly two agree, unless it is in regarding
the question itself as a trifling one. Some hold that there are no such
things as infinitesimals, and that it is all a question of limits.
Others would argue that the infinitesimal is the necessary outcome of
the limit, but various shades of intermediate opinion spring up.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account