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
then it obviously follows since “3,590 feet is the height of Snowdon,”
and “Snowdon = the highest mountain in England or Wales,” that, “3,590
feet is the height of the highest mountain in England or Wales.”
One result of this general process of inference is that we may in any
aggregate or complex whole replace any part by its equivalent without
altering the whole. To alter is to make a difference; but if in
replacing a part I make no difference, there is no alteration of the
whole. Many inferences which have been very imperfectly included in
logical formulas at once follow. I remember the late Prof. De Morgan
remarking that all Aristotle’s logic could not prove that “Because a
horse is an animal, the head of a horse is the head of an animal.” I
conceive that this amounts merely to replacing in the complete notion
*head of a horse*, the term “horse,” by its equivalent *some animal* or
*an animal*. Similarly, since
The Lord Chancellor = The Speaker of the House of Lords,
it follows that
The death of the Lord Chancellor = The death of the Speaker of the
House of Lords;
and any event, circumstance or thing, which stands in a certain
relation to the one will stand in like relation to the other. Milton
reasons in this way when he says, in his Areopagitica, “Who kills a
man, kills a reasonable creature, God’s image.” If we may suppose him
to mean
God’s image = man = some reasonable creature,
it follows that “The killer of a man is the killer of some reasonable
creature,” and also “The killer of God’s image.”
This replacement of equivalents may be repeated over and over again to
any extent. Thus if *person* is identical in meaning with *individual*,
it follows that
Meeting of persons = meeting of individuals;
and if *assemblage* = *meeting*, we may make a new replacement and show
that
Meeting of persons = assemblage of individuals.
We may in fact found upon this principle of substitution a most general
axiom in the following terms[36]:--
[36] *Pure Logic, or the Logic of Quality*, p. 14.
*Same parts samely related make same wholes.*
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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