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

352 THE PROBLEMS WHICH WE HAVE RAISED.
"
line of thought, Mill says that the main business of Induc
"
"
tion is to ascertain what are the laws of causation which
exist in nature, to determine the effect of every cause and
the causes of all effects" (III. vi. 3).
The process of Induction is one of analysis applied to the
complex mass of facts which Nature presents to us. This
analysis is in the first instance mental, and is exemplified in
knowing what to look for. The importance of this is ex
cellently described by Mill (III. vii.
i). This leads to
physical analysis, by observation or with far more power
by experiment (III. vii. 2, 3, 4). The methods of phy
sical analysis are the five Inductive Methods described by
Mill in Bk. III. ch. viii., ix., x. : these methods we have
re-stated with the necessary modifications ; and we have
pointed out the true place of the Method of Explanation,
which is accurately described by him (III. xiv. ; esp. 5),
but which he treats only as a subordinate method, useful in
helping out the others.
If the doctrines implied in the passages to which we
have just referred were consistently worked out, the
result would be a theory of Induction substantially
the same as that which we have expounded. But
Mill mingles it with a line of thought wholly in
consistent with it.
The student of Mill s Logic will see that most of the
difficulties and inconsistencies in his treatment arise from
a persistent attempt to found his exposition of scientific
method on the theory of the origin of knowledge which
1
is known as This "empiricism."
theory, which is
based on that of Hume, maintains that the only source
of knowledge consists in "experience," understood to
mean the succession of separate facts appearing in the
perceptions of our senses. The mind contributes nothing
to knowledge beyond the power of receiving the facts
1 See Green s "Lectures on the Logic of J. S. Mill," in his
Philosophical Works,
vol. ii.