Scientific Method: Its Philosophy and Its Practice |
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able accept actual admit appear applied Aristotle authority Bacon become belief body Book called cause CHAPTER circumstances common conception conclusion connection consequent consider course definition Descartes determined difficulty discover distinct doctrine doubt effect equal error event evidence examination example existence experience explanation facts force give given hypothesis ideas important induction inference instance kind knowledge known less Lewes light Locke Logic matter means method Mill mind motion nature never object observation once opinion particular pass perhaps phenomena phenomenon Phil Philosophy physical Plato position possible practical present principles probability problem produced question reason refer regard relation result rule says Science scientific seems sense simple sometimes speak substance successive suggest supposed teacher term theory things thought tion true truth views weight whole
Popular passages
Page 144 - The difference betwixt these consists in the degrees of force and liveliness with which they strike upon the mind, and make their way into our thought or consciousness. Those perceptions which enter with most force and violence, we may name impressions ; and under this name I comprehend all our sensations, passions and emotions, as they make their first appearance in the soul. By ideas, I mean the faint images of these in thinking and reasoning...
Page 207 - If two or more instances in which the phenomenon occurs have only one circumstance in common, while two or more instances in which it does not occur have nothing in common save the absence of that circumstance, the circumstance in which alone the two sets of instances...
Page 147 - All events seem entirely loose and separate. One event follows another; but we never can observe any tie between them. They seem conjoined, but never connected.
Page 157 - The Law of Causation, the recognition of which is the main pillar of inductive science, is but the familiar truth that invariability of succession is found by observation to obtain between every fact in nature and some other fact which has preceded It...
Page 50 - The truth of an idea is not a stagnant property inherent in it. Truth happens to an idea. It becomes true, is made true by events.
Page 143 - I am the better pleased with the method of reasoning here delivered, as I think it may serve to confound those dangerous friends, or disguised enemies to the Christian religion, who have undertaken to defend it by the principles of human reason. Our most holy religion is founded on Faith, not on reason ; and it is a sure method of exposing it to put it to such a trial as it is by no means fitted to endure.
Page 97 - Now words, being commonly framed and applied according to the capacity of the vulgar, follow those lines of division which are most obvious to the vulgar understanding. And whenever an understanding of greater acuteness or a more diligent observation would alter those lines to suit the true divisions of nature, words stand in the way and resist the change.
Page 49 - The philosopher should be a man willing to listen to every suggestion, but determined to judge for himself. He should not be biased by appearances; have no favorite hypothesis ; be of no school ; and in doctrine have no master. He should not be a respecter of persons, but of things. Truth should be his primary object. If to these qualities be added industry, he may indeed hope to walk within the veil of the temple of nature.
Page 41 - Pragmatism unstiffens all our theories, limbers them up and sets each one at work. Being nothing essentially new, it harmonizes with many ancient philosophic tendencies. It agrees with nominalism, for instance, in always appealing to particulars; with utilitarianism in emphasizing practical aspects; with positivism in its disdain for verbal solutions, useless questions and metaphysical abstractions.
Page 132 - But yet if we would speak of things as they are, we must allow that all the art of rhetoric, besides order and clearness, all the artificial and figurative application of words eloquence hath invented, are for nothing else but to insinuate wrong ideas, move the passions, and thereby mislead the judgment...
Bibliographic information
| Title | Scientific Method: Its Philosophy and Its Practice |
| Author | Frederic William Westaway |
| Publisher | Blackie and son, limited, 1912 |
| Original from | the University of California |
| Digitized | 27 Nov 2007 |
| Length | 439 pages |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |