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562 &%$ ?Leabet. [Saturday,
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How to see the Exhibition in Four Visits...
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Familiar Letters on Chemistry in its Rel...
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Bailey's Tiikoky Ok Uiiasoning. The Theo...
conclude that the tide has ebbed and left the weed where I perceive it lying . " He remarks that for such inferences one condition is always necessary— " The seamen must have been acquainted with a similar case or similar cases , " In examples such as the above the conclusions are particular inferences ; but from analogous premises general or universal conclusions may equall y be inferred , e . g" .: — " Collective Fact . " All men , as far as observation has extended , have been found fallible . " Universal law : " Particular inference : " Therefore all men are " Therefore the man fallible . Peter is fallible . "
Here the particular inference is not logically subsequent to the universal law . Both are probable inferences , for which the real evidence is the same . Great confusion , it is remarked , has arisen from not distinguishing between the " collective fact , " which is simply a summary of the evidence and the general or universal law inferred , which goes beyond the evidence . Furthermore , from every act of reasoning some general principle may thus be educed , which may be called the principle of the reasoning . In the present instance the principle of the reasoning
is , that " similar events or phenomena take place in similar cases . " Hence the chief cases of similarity being those of accusation , the two main subordinate principles in contingent reasoning may be stated to be " like causes produce like effects , and like effects proceed from like causes . " The drawing out and formal statement of the general principle implied in , or educible from the argument , is of no avail in strengthening the force of the argument , although the contrary has been frequently assumed , and even expressly asserted .
With reference to the general principle of contingent reasoning , viz ., that similar events take place in similar cases , Mr . Bailey remarks that it was the opinion of Hume that such inferences as it warrants are truly drawn , but by some unknown medium or chain of reasoning . And he adds : — " If an inference is unavoidably and justly drawn , no medium or chain of reasoning is needed to enable us to draw it . Drawing an inference is reasoning , and between the inference and the fact from which it is drawn , nothing can , in the nature of the case , be interposed . " And a little further on he says : —
" Reid , Dugald Stewart , and Thomas Brown , do not follow Hume in his demand for a medium , but they unite with him in declaring that inferences of the kind in question are not drawn by reasoning . " If we construe this declaration literally , it amounts in fact to saying that toe do not reason by reasoning , which may be true , but is at all events nugatory . We cannot with any propriety be said to do an net by the act itself ; but "who would think of makinsr the assertion ?"
The truth is , as Mr . Bailey ' s subsequent remarks really imply , that Reid , Dugald Stewart , and Brown here used the term reasoning in a more restricted sense than he has done . They meant by it demonstrative or deductive reasoning—that which consists in perceiving that one fact is necessarily involved in another , or in drawing from a given fact some other which is thus necessarily involved in it . They spoke , indoed , of other kinds of inference as
probable reasoning , experimental reasoning , & c . ; l > ut in so doing , they did not intend to imply that they were a particular species of demonstrative rea * soiling ; but used the terms by way of analogy ; the ground of that analogy , probably , being the circumstances that the same forms , the same illative and causal conjunctions , therefore , because , & c , are employed in the expression of these processes an in the expression of demonstrative inference .
Demonstrative reasoning , in Mr . Bailey's account , includes other forms than mathematical and syllogistic or " class reasoning , " <• . # ' .: —¦ " That portrait is a striking lik < : m > HB of two different persons ; therefore , they must resemblo each other . " ] n every example of demonstrative inference , some axiom or universal necessary truth is exemplified . Aristotle ' s dictum . " tie omni et nullo" is oue such axiom , the Helf' -evident truths of geometry aro
otheiK . The general axiom involved in the preceding example would , in accordance with Mr . Bailey's views , be : —If n given thing is like , in the Hume Hi'UHii of likeness , to two other things , those things are like to each other . With reference to the objection against the utility of the dictum , " dc omni" ikc ., \ ' \ A ., that the major preiniNHew not " only implies , but contains the conclusion , " Mr . Huiley thinks that its application is not leas on this account an example of inference .
One important consequence flowing from the above doctrine is , that many arguments which are demonstrative in form , are contingent in reality : — "My doctrine is , that all such reasoning as consists in inferring unobserved facts from general propositions , although strictly demonstrative in form , is in reality contingent , and that it is represented by the formula . " All other men have been found fallible . •« Therefore , this man ( whose fallibility has never been observed ) is fallible .
In other words , the interposition of the universal premiss , which is itself deduced by contingent reasoning f rom the facts of observation , and between those facts and the particular inference , does not change the character of the reasoning ; and , indeed , forms no essential point of it , although often recommended by convenience . This doctrine , which is chiefly valuable as a protest against the extravagant pretensions of the logic of the schools , ia
set forth by Mr . Bailey with great force of argument and much felicity of illustration . The general reader will , perhaps , find more to interest him in the chapters on " Observation and Induction , " and on " The Sources of Erroneous Conclusions , " than in those we have examined , which are necessarily to some extent occupied with technical discussions . The Appendix , containing examples of applied logic of the Analysis of Trains of Reasoning , & c , will fully repay attention .
In closing our task , it remains to say a few words upon the general doctrine , of which we have endeavoured to present a brief summary . We agree with Mr . Bailey in thinking that in every step of reasoning , however limited to particular instances or individuals its conclusion may be , some general principle is exemplified . We assent , also , to his statement of the principle concerned in contingent or probable reasoning ( under which head might properly be included the logic of analogy ) , and we entirely accept his view that demonstrative reasoning is not confined to the syllogism ; and that the dictum de omni et nullo is not the universal
principle of reasoning , nor even of the syllogism itself . We hold too , with him , that the formal statement of axioms in demonstrative reasoning , as well as of universal premisses collected from particular facts , and serving for particular inference , in contingent reasoning , does not add to the cogency of proof , or , indeed , form any essential part of the process of reasoning . We conceive , however , that Mr . Bailey has not sufficiently apprehended the peculiar , and perhaps central , relation which " class reasoning " occupies
among all other forms of reasoning , whether demonstrative or probable . For , although there are a multitude of perfectly correct arguments , in whioh class reasoning is not really employed , yet there are none which cannot , granting the statement of axioms or of inductive laws , be reduced to an application of class reasoning . We admit that they thereby gain nothing in cogency , nay , that they often lose in convenience . Still , the fact we noticed seems to us to constitute a
remarkable and distinctive feature of " classreasoning , " and one which gives to it a speculative or scientific interest altogether independent of its practical importance . As in the constitution of the external world we behold the constant inclusion of individuals in classes , the constant subordination of particular facts to general laws , so in the constitution of the mind , as developed in the phenomena of class reasoning , we discern a clear adaptation to this outward condition of things in which it is placed .
Whether the theory of class reasoning has assumed , or is likely to assume , a scientific ; form , is a question into which we have not space to enter . Different writers appear to have entertained different views upon the mode of attaining this consummation . Sir W . Hamilton has endeavoured to lay down the one universal canon of syllogism . Mr . I ) e Morgan has introduced the principle of numerical definition , and has drawn from it incomparably the most complete list of the allowable forms of syllogism that has yet been given to the
world . We cannot , while grateful to these eminent , names , conceal our conviction that there exists some prior ground of law in which the ultimate foundations of the possible science must repose . . Such a supposition does not entail the consequence that th ( 3 mind , like external nature , is subjected to the condition of mi unchangeable nccenBity . In the outward world of necessity , indeed , it in tho office of law to indicate that which must be . In the inner world of freedom it may be its office to prescribe that which ought to be .
562 &%$ ?Leabet. [Saturday,
562 & %$ ? Leabet . [ Saturday ,
How To See The Exhibition In Four Visits...
How to see the Exhibition in Four Visits . ByW . Blanchard Jerrold . Visit First : The Transept , Nave , and South-Western Section of the British Department . Bradbury and Evans . Every one who has been to the Exhibition remembers to have seen crowds of people with catalogues in . their hands , and scarcely a bouI consulting them . In fact , the catalogues , though indispensable , are not for immediate use while traversing the building . To supply a handbook which shall really explain in the briefest possible terms all that you would seek for ia the catalogue during your visit , Mr . Blanchard Jerrold has given us the present little work . It has another merit : it gives something like a practicable and coherent plan for seeing every thing in four visits . It is to be used in the building , or to refresh the memory after a visit . Portable in size , and cheap tn price , it must be successful .
BOOKS ON OUR TABLE . Half-Hours of English History . Selected and Illustrated hv Charles Knight . c . Knight . The first part of a new undertaking suggested by the immense success of the Half-Hours with the Best Authors . The glimpses of English history here give n are culled from various sources—historical and . poetical—from Dion Cassius , the Venerable Bede Shakespare , Beaumont and Fletcher , Palgrave ' Guizot , Joanna Baillie , Sheridan Knowles , and ' Wordsworth .
The Comic History of Rome . By the Author of the Comic History of England Illustrated by John Leech . Part II . Bradbury and Evans . The second number of this elaborate joke is even more laughable than the first . The way in which almost every sentence is made to yield its fun . is surprising—e . g ., " Though Brutus assumed the look of an idiot , and generally had his eye on vacancy , it was only to conceal the fact that a vacancy on the throne was what he really had his eye upon . " The whole number runs on in this strain . A Little Earnest Book upon a Great Old Subject . By "William Wilson , author of a " House for Shakspeare . "
Darton and Co . Desultory but agreeable remarks on poetry , poets , and things poetical , interspersed with verses , and illustrated by Alfred Crowcpil . It is rather the jottings down of a reflective mind than a work of any coherent purpose . The Heir of Watt Wayland . A Tale . By Mary Howitt . ( Parlour Library . ) Shnma and M'Intire . Messrs . Simms and M'Intyre , not content with having started the bold undertaking of the " Parlour Library , " have been encouraged by success , so far as
to produce several new and original novels at the same cheap rate . The novel before us might have formed an attractive three volumes , yet it is published at a shilling . Mary Howitt has here painted Yorkshire life with an agreeable pencil , and told a simple story , simply . There is nothing peculiarly novel in the story or in its incidents ; but the mise en scene speaks of actual experience , and gives us glimpses into conditions of life which have all the charm of freshness , and thus the Heir of Wast Wayland becomes a pleasant railway companion , or will occupy an evening's leisure by the sea-side .
Familiar Letters On Chemistry In Its Rel...
Familiar Letters on Chemistry in its Relation to Physiology , Dietetics , Agriculture , Commerce , and 1 ' olitical Economy . By Justus Non Liebeg-. Taylor , Walton , and Maberly . An Introduction to Geology , and its Associate Sciences , Mineralogy , Fossil Botany and Conchology , and Pab & contology . By the late Q . !•' . -Richardson . A new edition , revised and enlarged . By Thomas Wright , M . D . II . G . Bohn . Lectures on Political Economy . By Francis William Newman . J . Chapman The Daltons ; or , Three Roads in Life . By Charles Lever . Chapman and Hall . General History of the Christian Iteli gion and Church . Translated from the German of Dr . Augustus Neander . By Joseph Torrey . A ' ol . III . II . ( i . Bohn . The Fasti , Triatia , Pontici , Kpistlee , Ibis , and Ilalioutioon of Ovid . Lty Henry T . Riley , 11 . A . II . 0 . Bohn . Tin : Doctrine of the Trinity a Doctrine not of Divine Origin ; and tht ! Duty of Christian Men in Halation thereto . Ry G . S . Hawthorne . M . D . K . T . Whitfield .
St . Gilt-H and St . Januv . i . Collected edition of the writing's of DonghiH Jerrold . l'art G . Brudbury and Kvuns . Limbird ' n Handbook Guide to London . J . Limbird . 11 urry- (; raphtt ; or , Sketches of Bcunery , Celebrities , and Society , taken from Life . By JM . Tarker Willis . 11 . G . Holm . The House of Hie Seven (< uhleu . A Romance . Uy N . Hawthorne . . II . O . Holm . On the Reformation of Society , nnd How all Clasnes may contribute to it- A Luoture . Uy the llcvvroud 1 ' rol ' etiHor Maurice , IW . A . J . Tupling . A World ICmhracing Faith ; or Ucli ^ ioiiH Whinners front tho Kxlubitiou of Industry . By Kdward Hij fjjiimou . H . T . Wlritllold . Tiinetlirifl . ; or All Mourn turned to Good Account . Conducted by Mru . Warren . Longman , Brown , and Co . The Loukur-on ; a Uuoord of tho Literary , ArtiHtic , and Koieutiilc World . I ' iirt 1 . Hull , Virtue , autl Co . Familiar Thinj , '" - A C ) elopiedU of Kntcrtainiii | r Knowledge No . G . Hall . Virtue , and Co *
Knight ' H Oyolopiuilia of London . Vart 7 . C . Knight . Knifrht ' i * Cycjopwdia of liulnntry . I ' mt , 7 . C . Knight .. KiiigUt ' u riotorial HluikKpoaro ( Iliunlet } . C . Knitf ht , Victorinl I lull " -Hours , l'art i ; j . C . Knight . Chaninun ' u f ' unny Mh . |> . l ' art . II . Chapman and Hall Tho Inlluito Republic , ; u Spiritual Revolution . Uy Wllliw " Worth . h . o . Clarko mid Co . I ' oeniH . By Georgtt Meredith . J . W . I ' urlior , The Kanctury of Hpiriluahiun ; a Study of the Hunmmi Houl , and of the Rolationm with tho Univerao . through HornnambuliHin and licBtuoy . Uy L . A . CeahnRiiot . tjeorge l'Jorco .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 14, 1851, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_14061851/page/14/
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