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A System of Logic:
Raciocinative and Inductive
John Stuart Mill
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This text was written before the ``vintage'' decade, but parts of it
are pertinent to Mill's utilitarianism, so we have elected to include
it here. The twelveth chapter of the sixth book on the ``Logic of
Practice'' is the one most directly relevant to Mill's utilitarianism,
but there are others as well, such as the last section of the second
chapter of that same book, wherein Mill explicitly denies
``psychological hedonism''. At present we only have selections from
the text, including all of Book VI, viz. ``The Logic of the Moral
Sciences''. As time permits other parts of the System of
Logic will be added here: eventually the whole book will be
posted.
Source of the Text
I have used as source a reprint of the eighth edition of A System
of Logic, the which reprint was done by Longman, Green, and
Co. (London) in 1925. The eighth edition was the last printed in
Mill's lifetime.
Table of Contents
Prefaces
Introduction
- Section 1
A definition at the commencement of a subject must be provisional
- Section 2
Is Logic the art and science of reasoning?
- Section 3
Or the art and science of the pursuit of truth?
- Section 4
Logic is concerned with inferences, not with intuitive truths
- Section 5
Relation of Logic to the other sciences
- Section 6
Its utility, how shown
- Section 7
Definition of Logic stated and illustrated
Book I
Of Names and Propositions
Book III
Of Induction
- Chapter VII
Of Observation and Experiment.
- Section 1
The first step of inductive inquiry is a mental analysis of
complex phenomena into their elements
- Section 2
The next is an actual separation of those elements
- Section 3
Advantages of experiment over observation
- Section 4
Advantages of observation over experiment
- Chapter X
Of Plurality of Causes: and of the Intermixture of Effects.
- Section 1
One effect may have several causes
- Section 2
---which is the source of a characteristic imperfection of the
Method of Agreement
- Section 3
Plurality of Causes, how ascertained
- Section 4
Concurrence of Causes which do not compound their effects
- Section 5
Difficulties of the investigation when causes compound their
effects
- Section 6
Three modes of investigating the laws of complex effects
- Section 7
The method of simple observation inapplicable
- Section 8
The purely experimental method inapplicable
- Chapter XXIII
Approximate Generalisations, and Probable Evidence.
- Section 1
The Inferences called probable rest on approximate
generalisations
- Section 2
Approximate generalisations less useful in science than in life
- Section 3
In what cases they may be resorted to
- Section 4
In what manner proved
- Section 5
With what precautions employed
- Section 6
The two modes of combining probabilities
- Section 7
How approximate generalisations nosy be converted into
accurate generalisations equivalent to them
Book IV
Of Operations Subsidiary to Induction
- Chapter IV
Of the Requisites of a Philosophic Language, and the Principles of
Definition.
- Section 1
First requisite of philosophical language, a steady and
determinate meaning for every general name
- Section 2
Names in common use have often a loose connotation
- Section 3
---which the logician should fix, with as little alteration
as possible
- Section 4
Why definition is often a question not of words but of things
- Section 5
How the logician should deal with the transitive applications
of words
- Section 6
Evil consquences of casting off any portion the customary connotation
of words
- Chapter V
On the Natural History of the Variations in the Meaning of Terms.
- Section 1
How circumstances originally accidental become incorporated into
the meaning of words
- Section 2
----and sometimes become the whole meaning
- Section 3
Tendency of words to become generalised
- Section 4
---and to become specialised
Book V
Of Fallacies
Book VI
The Logic of the Moral Sciences
- Chapter I
Introductory Remarks
- Section 1
The backward state of the Moral Sciences can
only be remedied by applying to them the methods of
Physical Science, duly extended and
generalised
- Section 2
How far this can be attempted in the present work
- Chapter II
Of Liberty and Necessity
- Section 1
Are human actions subject to the law of causality?
- Section 2
The doctrine commonly called Philosophical Necessity, in
what sense true
- Section 3
Inappropriateness and pernicious effect of the term Necessity
- Section 4
A motive not always the anticipation of a pleasure or a pain
- Chapter III
That there is, or may be a Science of Human Nature
- Section 1
There may be sciences which are not exact sciences
- Section 2
To what scientific type the Science of Human Nature corresponds
- Chapter IV
Of the Laws of Mind
- Section 1
What is meant by Laws of Mind
- Section 2
Is there a Science of Psychology?
- Section 3
The principal investigations of Psychology characterised
- Section 4
Relation of mental facts to physical conditions
- Chapter V
Of Ethology, or the Science of the Formation of Character
- Section 1
The Empirical Laws of Human Nature
- Section 2
---are merely approximate generalisations. The universal laws are
those of the formation of character
- Section 3
The laws of the formation of character cannot be ascertained by
observation and experiment
- Section 4
---but must be studied deductively
- Section 5
The principles of Ethology are the axiomata media
of mental science
- Section 6
Ethology characterised
- Chapter VI
General Considerations on the Social Sciences
- Section 1
Are Social Phenomena a subject of Science?
- Section 2
Of what nature the Social Science must be
- Chapter VII
Of the Chemical, or Experimental, Method in the Social Sciences
- Section 1
Characters of the mode of thinking which deduces political
doctrines from specific experience
- Section 2
In the Social Science experiments are impossible
- Section 3
---the Method of Difference inapplicable
- Section 4
---and the Methods of Agreement and of Concomitant Variations
inconclusive
- Section 5
The Method of Residues also Inconclusive, and presupposes Deduction
- Chapter VIII
On the Geometrical, or Abstract Method
- Section 1
Characters of this mode of thinking
- Section 2
Examples of the Geometrical Method
- Section 3
The interest-philosophy of the Bentham School
- Chapter IX
Of the Physical, or Concrete Deductive Method
- Section 1
The Direct and Inverse Deductive Methods
- Section 2
Difficulties of the Direct Deductive Method in the Social Science
- Section 3
To what extent the different branches of sociological speculation
can be studied apart. Political Economy characterised
- Section 4
Political Ethology, or the science of National Character
- Section 5
The Empirical Laws of the Social Science
- Section 6
The Verification of the Social Science
- Chapter X
Of the Inverse Deductive, or Historical Method.
- Section 1
Distinction between the general Science of Society and special
Sociological inquiries
- Section 2
What is meant by a State of Society
- Section 3
The Progressiveness of Man and Society
- Section 4
The laws of the succession of states of Society can only be
ascertained by the Inverse Deductive Method
- Section 5
Social Statics, or the science of the Co-existences of Social
Phenomena
- Section 6
Social Dynamics, or the science of the Successions of Social
Phenomena
- Section 7
Outlines of the Historical Method
- Section 8
Future prospects of Sociological Inquiry
- Chapter XI
Additional Elucidations of the Science of History.
- Section 1
The subjection of historical facts to uniform laws is verified by
statistics
- Section 2
---does not imply the Insignificance of moral causes
- Section 3
---nor the inefficacy of the characters of individuals and of the
acts of governments
- Section 4
The historical importance of eminent men and of the policy of
governments illustrated
- Chapter XII
Of the Logic of Practice, or Art; Including Morality and Policy.
- Section 1
Morality not a science, but an Art
- Section 2
Relation between rules of Art and the theorems of the
corresponding science
- Section 3
What Is the proper function of rules of Art?
- Section 4
Art cannot be Deductive
- Section 5
Every Art consists of truths of Science, arranged in the order
suitable for some practical use
- Section 6
Teleology, or the doctrine of Ends
- Section 7
Necessity of an ultimate standard, or first principle of Teleology
- Section 8
Conclusion
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Last modified: Sun Aug 31 15:34:40 CDT 2003