A Logic of Facts, Or, Every-day Reasoning |
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Common terms and phrases
acquired admits affirmed or denied Ali Pacha analogy analysis Archimedes argument Aristotle arithmetic ascer ascertain assertion axioms Bacon believe called categorical syllogism CHAP common conceive conclusion conjectures conviction definition Descartes discover discovery of truth doubt ENTHYMEME error evidence examination existence experience expressed facts fallacy false generalisation gism grounds habits human hypothesis ignorance imagination induction inference inquiry instance intellectual J. S. Mill judge knowledge learning logician Lord Lord Brougham Lord Kames Lord Wellesley means ment metaphysical Mill mind nature never object observation opinion particular persons phenomena philosophy Phrenology physical certainty poetry political prejudice premises principles probable proposition Protagoras proved province of logic Pyrrho question racter reason reference remarks rights of mankind rules says scepticism Schools sense Shakspere Sir James Mackintosh species supposed syllogism testimony things thought tion true Westlock Whately Whately's whole wise words
Popular passages
Page 24 - Whatever is known to us by consciousness is known beyond possibility of question. What one sees or feels, whether bodily or mentally, one cannot but be sure that one sees or feels. No science is required for the purpose of establishing such truths; no rules of art can render our knowledge of them more certain than it is in itself. There is no logic for this portion of our knowledge.
Page 66 - Many a marvelous tale, many a scandalous anecdote, owes its origin to this incapacity. The narrator relates, not what he saw or heard, but the impression which he derived from what he saw or heard, and of which perhaps the greater part consisted of inference, though the whole is related not as inference, but as matter-of-fact.
Page 58 - He knows from memory that he has been burnt, and on this evidence believes, when he sees a candle, that if he puts his finger into the flame of it, he will be burnt again. He believes this in every case which happens to arise; but without looking, in each instance, beyond the present case. He is not generalising; he is inferring a particular from particulars. In the same way, also, brutes reason.
Page 58 - Not only may we reason from particulars to particulars without passing through generals, but we perpetually do so reason. All our earliest inferences are of this nature. From the first dawn of intelligence we draw inferences, but years elapse before we learn the use of general language. The child who, having burnt his fingers, avoids to thrust them again into the fire, has reasoned or inferred, though he has never thought of the genera] maxim, Fire burns.
Page 43 - The simplest and most correct notion of a Definition is, a proposition declaratory of the meaning of a word; namely, either the meaning which it bears in common acceptation, or that which the speaker or writer, for the particular purposes of his discourse, intends to annex to it.
Page 31 - It is the essence of the act of observing ; for the observer is not he who merely sees the thing which is before his eyes, but he who sees what parts that thing is composed of. To do this well is a rare talent. One person, from inattention, or attending only in the wrong place, overlooks half of what he sees ; another sets down much more than he sees, confounding it with what he imagines, or with what he infers; another takes note of the kiad of all the circumstances, but being inexpert in estimating...
Page 21 - I cannot but wonder that so much stress should be laid on the circumstance of inconceivableness when there is such ample experience to show that our capacity or incapacity of conceiving a thing has very little to do with the possibility of the thing in itself, but is, in truth, very much an affair of accident, and depends on the past history and habits of our own minds.
Page 24 - Truths are known to us in two ways : some are known directly, and of themselves ; some through the medium of other truths. The former are the subject of Intuition, or Consciousness ;* the latter, of Inference. The truths known by intuition are the original premises from which all others are inferred.
Page 42 - The predicate is the name denoting that which is affirmed or denied. The subject is the name denoting the person or thing which something is affirmed or denied of. The copula is the sign denoting that there is an affirmation or denial ; and thereby enabling the hearer or reader to distinguish a proposition from any other kind of discourse. Thus, in the proposition, The earth is round...
Page 58 - Not only the burnt child, but the burnt dog, dreads the fire. I believe that, in point of fact, when drawing inferences from our personal experience, and not from maxims handed down to us by books or tradition, we much oftener conclude from particulars to particulars directly, than through the intermediate agency of any general proposition. We are constantly reasoning from ourselves to other people, or from one person to another, without giving ourselves the trouble to erect our observations into...