A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive (Vol. 1 of 2) — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive (Vol. 1 of 2)
John Stuart Mill · en
FOURTH FORMULA. _Angles, having their sides coincident, coincide_.
The third induction having shown that B E and C D coincide, and the second
that A B, A C, coincide, the angles A B E and A C D are thereby brought
within the fourth formula, and accordingly coincide.
FIFTH FORMULA. _Things which coincide are equal_.
The angles A B E and A C D are brought within this formula by the
induction immediately preceding. This train of reasoning being also
applicable, _mutatis mutandis_, to the angles E B C, D C B, these also are
brought within the fifth formula. And, finally,
SIXTH FORMULA. _The differences of equals are equal_.
The angle A B C being the difference of A B E, C B E, and the angle A C B
being the difference of A C D, D C B; which have been proved to be equals;
A B C and A C B are brought within the last formula by the whole of the
previous process.
The difficulty here encountered is chiefly that of figuring to ourselves
the two angles at the base of the triangle A B C, as remainders made by
cutting one pair of angles out of another, while each pair shall be
corresponding angles of triangles which have two sides and the intervening
angle equal. It is by this happy contrivance that so many different
inductions are brought to bear upon the same particular case. And this not
being at all an obvious idea, it may be seen from an example so near the
threshold of mathematics, how much scope there may well be for scientific
dexterity in the higher branches of that and other sciences, in order so
to combine a few simple inductions, as to bring within each of them
innumerable cases which are not obviously included in it; and how long,
and numerous, and complicated may be the processes necessary for bringing
the inductions together, even when each induction may itself be very easy
and simple. All the inductions involved in all geometry are comprised in
those simple ones, the formulæ of which are the Axioms, and a few of the
so-called Definitions. The remainder of the science is made up of the
processes employed for bringing unforeseen cases within these inductions;
or (in syllogistic language) for proving the minors necessary to complete
the syllogisms; the majors being the definitions and axioms. In those
definitions and axioms are laid down the whole of the marks, by an artful
combination of which it has been found possible to discover and prove all
that is proved in geometry. The marks being so few, and the inductions
which furnish them being so obvious and familiar; the connecting of
several of them together, which constitutes Deductions, or Trains of
Reasoning, forms the whole difficulty of the science, and, with a trifling
exception, its whole bulk; and hence Geometry is a Deductive Science.