The Relation Of Inference To Fact In Mills Logic

Author : J. Forsyth Crawford
Publisher : Forgotten Books
ISBN 13 : 9781330590355
Total Pages : 52 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (93 download)

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Download or read book The Relation of Inference to Fact in Mill's Logic written by J. Forsyth Crawford and published by Forgotten Books. This book was released on 2015-06-25 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from The Relation of Inference to Fact in Mill's Logic The problems of logic are coming to form the center of interest in philosophical discussion. Most present controversies in the field of philosophy turn upon some difference which is fundamentally logical. There is need, therefore, to re-examine and clarify the underlying conceptions of logic. Any one of the great historical systems of logic offers a species of laboratory example of the shaping of logical concepts under some specific point of view, and the difficulties which it leaves unresolved offer valuable experimental material for further logical construction. It is with such a purpose that this paper undertakes an analysis of the relation of inference to fact in Mills logical system. In constructing a theory of inference Mills problem was to reconcile the associationism of the English empirical school with the procedure of modern physical science. He occupies alternately the subjective point of view of the one position and the objective point of view of the other. This oscillation of position comes out strikingly in the varied status which he gives to facts, which are at one time the ultimate constituents of consciousness and at another time the things and events of an independent world. When stating the relation of inference to its data and thus assigning it a locus, he takes the subjective point of view. When analyzing the nature of inference and basing its validity, he takes the objective point of view. It will be well, then, at the outset, to examine his conception of both subjective and objective facts, and the transition which he seeks to effect from the one to the other. Over against both of these, facts in the mind and facts in nature, Mill naively utilizes a system of meanings which he never thinks of as sundered from the facts, yet which are assumed as logically independent in his inferential process. An examination of the system of meanings we shall postpone till after we have examined his assumption of facts, and will consider the latter apart from their meaning so far as that can be done without distortion. The locus of inference in relation to fact, as assigned by Mill, rests on the distinction between immediate and mediate knowledge. The first is self-evident, the second reasoned. We obtain the first by intuition, the second by inference. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.