The Metaphysical Foundation of Buddhism and Modern Science
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Section XIV. <strong>The</strong> main method <strong>of</strong> philosophy in dealing with its evidence<br />
is that <strong>of</strong> descriptive generalization. Social institutions exemplify a<br />
welter <strong>of</strong> chraracteristics. No fact is merely suc<br />
h-<strong>and</strong>-such. It exemplifies many characters at once, all rooted in the<br />
specialities <strong>of</strong> its epoch. Philosophic generalization seizes on those<br />
characters <strong>of</strong> abiding importance, dismissing the trivial <strong>and</strong> the<br />
evanescent. <strong>The</strong>re is an ascent from a particular fact, or from a species,<br />
to the genus exemplified.<br />
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It is to be noted that the converse procedure is impossible. <strong>The</strong>re can be<br />
no descent from a mere genus to a particular fact, or to a species. For<br />
facts <strong>and</strong> species are the product <strong>of</strong> the mingling <strong>of</strong> genera. No genus in<br />
own essence indicates the other genera with which it is compatible. For<br />
example, the notion <strong>of</strong> a backbone does not indicate the notions <strong>of</strong><br />
suckling the young or <strong>of</strong> swimming in water. Thus no contemplation <strong>of</strong> the<br />
genus vertebrate, taken by itself, can suggest mammals or fishes, even as<br />
abstract possibilities. Neither the species nor the instance are to be<br />
discovered by the genus alone, since both include forms not 'given' by<br />
the genus. A species is a potencial mingling <strong>of</strong> genera, <strong>and</strong> an individual<br />
instance involves, among other things, an actual mingling <strong>of</strong> many species.<br />
A syllogism i a scheme for demontration <strong>of</strong> ways <strong>of</strong> mingling.<br />
Thus the business <strong>of</strong> Logic is not the analysis <strong>of</strong> generalities but their<br />
mingling. [Cf. Plato's Sophist, 253 ]<br />
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