Scientific Method: Its Philosophy and Its Practice

Front Cover
Blackie and son, limited, 1912 - 439 pages
 

Contents

THE SOPHISTS AND SOCRATES
51
PLATO
59
2435
66
141
73
BLACK
79
d His Account of the Rainbow
80
SCHOLASTICISM
87
BACON Page 1 Bacons Independence of Mind
92
General Notions
94
His Philosophical Works 4 The Four Classes of Idols 5 Bacons Method
95
a Collection of Facts
98
b Discovery of Forms
99
c The True Difference
100
d The Tables of Investigation
101
e The Process of Exclusion f Other Helps The First Vintage
102
Bacons Investigation into Heat
103
The Method a Failure in Practice
104
Bacons Errors and Oversights in Science
107
His Rejection of the Copernican Theory
108
Bacons Critics
110
Bacon and Aristotle
112
DESCARTES 1 Descartes dissatisfied with Existing Philosophic Systems
114
He considers a New Method of Procedure Necessary
115
His Organon is Doubt 4 Cogito ergo sum
117
Clear and Distinct Ideas 6 Descartes Four Rules
119
His Opinion of Logic
121
His Mathematics and Physics
122
His Theory of Vortices
123
Why the Method fails
124
The Cartesian Method and the Baconian Method
126
LOCKE 1 Characteristics of Locke
127
His Toleration
129
His Views on Education
130
Lockes Essay
131
The Ambiguities of Language 7 The Association of Ideas
132
Locke the Founder of Modern Psychol
133
The Origin of our Ideas
134
Simple and Complex Ideas
135
Innate Ideas 12 Lockes Critics
139
THE FUNCTION OF LOGIC IN SCIENTIFIC METHOD
165
THE METHODOLOGISTS
175
3 Whewells Colligation of Facts and Explication of Conceptions 4 Mills Views of Induction 5 How Mill Differs from Whewell 7 Professor Weltons...
190
92
191
Varying the Circumstances
193
Observation 4 Experiment
194
Experiment not always Possible
198
Experimental Researches 1 By Newton
199
2 By Faraday 3 By Brewster
200
4 By Franklin
201
5 By Davy
202
MILLS CANONS 1 The Basis of the Canons
203
The Method of Agreement 3 The Method of Difference
205
The Joint Method 5 The Method of Residues
208
The Method of Concomitant Variations
209
Plurality of Causes 8 Intermixture of Effects
213
CLASSIFICATION 1 General Notions
215
What Constitutes a Good Classification
216
Kinds and Types
217
Principles of Logical Division
219
Definition
222
CHAP Page XIX THE ANALYSIS OF PHENOMENA 1 Unsuspected Associations of Phenomena
224
Herschel on the Analysis of Phenomena
226
His Remarks on our Notions of Force
227
His Analysis of the Phenomenon of Sound
228
The Limits of such an Analysis
230
191
232
196
233
Rival Hypotheses Experimentum Crucis
246
The Deciding Crucial Experiment
249
ANALOGY 1 General Notions
250
Points of Resemblance must be Weighed not Counted
252
Instances of Analogical Inference
254
Illegitimate Analogy
256
Hypotheses suggested by Analogy
257
PROBABILITY 1 General Notions
258
The Theory of Probability deals with Quantity of Knowledge
259
Quantitative Aspects of the Theory
260
Simple Mathematical Considerations
262
Experience and Theory Compared
264
Inverse Probability
265
Simple Rules of the Inverse Method
267
The Transmission of Historical Evidence
268
Coincidences which are Casual
269
Uncertainty almost Inevitable
270
CHAP Page XXIV MEASUREMENT 1 Precise Measurement Fundamental in Science
271
Standards and Units
272
Empirical Formulæ
275
94
277
Rational Formulæ
279
Variation in Simple Proportion
282
Theory and Experimental Results
283
Discordance between Theory and Direct Measurement
284
ERROR AND ITS CORRECTION 1 Exact Measurement is virtually Impossible
285
The Assumptions made by Science
286
Elimination of Error
287
The Method of Means
289
95
292
How the Law has been Arrived at
293
8 The Probable Error of Results
295
The Method of Least Squares
297
The Method of Curves
298
BOOK III
301
WHITE OF SELBORNE Some of his Observations
303
ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE The Migration of Birds
305
DARWIN The Sensitiveness of Worms to Light
308
98
311
HARVEY The Circulation of the Blood
314
WELLS
316
The Production of Dew
317
Fixed Air in Lime and in Alkalis
321
Fixed Air
326
GAYLUSSAC The Combination of Gaseous Substances
329
100
332
Is there Oxygen in Oxymuriatic Acid?
334
BOYLE The Ascent of Water in Siphous
337
NEWTON The Refrangibility of Light
342
FARADAY Electricity by Friction of Water and Steam against other Bodies
350
OTHER INVESTIGATORS AND WRITERS 1 Franklin
360
101
361
8 Lord Rayleigh
362
415
363
11 Huxley
364
19 Wilhelm Ostwald
365
CHAP Page
369
102
376
INSTANCES OF INVESTIGATION ATTEMPTED BY PUPILS
382
SOLVING MATHEMATICAL PROBLEMS IN THE CLASSROOM
402
APPENDIX
413
104
426
114
428
199
429
129
433
203
434
Bain
436

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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...

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