An introductory text-book of logic - Mellone, Sydney - Rare Books at ...

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CHAPTER IX.
THE THEORY OF INDUCTION OR SCIENTIFIC METHOD.
i. EXPERIENCE presents to us a chaos of innumerable
events, together and in succession. In this chaos, science
has first to ascertain the facts ; then, to ascertain
follows what"
"
what
i.e., what facts are invariably connected
together; and then, to account for these regular con
nections, to show how or why they are so connected.
Hence there are three stages in scientific method, which
may be distinguished as Observation, Experiment, and
Explanation. The first two of these cannot do more
than answer the question of fact,
" "
Was it so ? they are
logically identical, and shade off practically into one
another. We may call them "steps towards Explana
tion," for, as we shall see, Explanation is the goal of
Science. Some sciences are
practically
limited to
observation ; others employ both observation and ex
periment ;
and others are able not only to establish facts
by experiment and observation, but to explain them.
The first step towards Explanation is to observe the
facts. Observation is a mental as well as a physical
activity; 1
for in order to observe, not only must the
attention take a particular direction, but we must be
more or less conscious of what we are looking for. In
other words, observation, like ordinary perception, is
1 To overlook this was Bacon s great mistake.