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

310
THE THEORY OF INDUCTION
made with the purpose, before all else, of helping us
to understand; hence they must be thought out as
completely and accurately as possible. Here we have
stated the essential difference between Science and
Common -Sense. It is not so much a difference of
subject-matter. Professor W. K. Clifford said roundly
that "scientific thought does not mean thought about
scientific subjects with long names ; there are no
scientific subjects. The subject of science is the
human universe; that is to say, everything that is
or has been or may be related to man." Common-
Sense is content to know and understand this universe
far enough to satisfy practical needs ; hence
just
Common-Sense is knowledge in a disorganised and
sometimes chaotic state. Science, on the contrary,
seeks for the real causes of events, and seeks to connect
these causes together by means of explanatory laws.
Common-Sense is usually contented with the outside
of things. Science seeks for clear and distinct con
ceptions which shall give us, not the appearance only,
but something deeper, which is more true and real.
EXERCISE.
1. "The Third is distinctively the Inditctive Figure?
Discuss this view of the nature of Induction.
2. "Analogy is the soul of Induction." Criticise this
statement. Or,
Consider the relations that have been held to exist be
tween Analogy and Induction. Do you think there is ever
proof from analogy ? If not, what place does analogy hold
in the process of inference ? [L.]
3. Distinguish hypothesis from theory. Explain the use
of hypothesis in scientific procedure. Show, by a concrete
example, how far the imagination, and how far the reason,
has entered into the construction of a workable hypothesis.
[L.]