A System of Logic: Ratiocinative and Inductive, 7th Edition, Vol. I
John Stuart Mill · en
If these remarks are just; if the principles and rules of inference are
the same whether we infer general propositions or individual facts; it
follows that a complete logic of the sciences would be also a complete
logic of practical business and common life. Since there is no case of
legitimate inference from experience, in which the conclusion may not
legitimately be a general proposition; an analysis of the process by
which general truths are arrived at, is virtually an analysis of all
induction whatever. Whether we are inquiring into a scientific principle
or into an individual fact, and whether we proceed by experiment or by
ratiocination, every step in the train of inferences is essentially
inductive, and the legitimacy of the induction depends in both cases on
the same conditions.
True it is that in the case of the practical inquirer, who is
endeavouring to ascertain facts not for the purposes of science but for
those of business, such for instance as the advocate or the judge, the
chief difficulty is one in which the principles of induction will afford
him no assistance. It lies not in making his inductions, but in the
selection of them; in choosing from among all general propositions
ascertained to be true, those which furnish marks by which he may trace
whether the given subject possesses or not the predicate in question. In
arguing a doubtful question of fact before a jury, the general
propositions or principles to which the advocate appeals are mostly, in
themselves, sufficiently trite, and assented to as soon as stated: his
skill lies in bringing his case under those propositions or principles;
in calling to mind such of the known or received maxims of probability
as admit of application to the case in hand, and selecting from among
them those best adapted to his object. Success is here dependent on
natural or acquired sagacity, aided by knowledge of the particular
subject, and of subjects allied with it. Invention, though it can be
cultivated, cannot be reduced to rule; there is no science which will
enable a man to bethink himself of that which will suit his purpose.