A Class Room Logic / Deductive and Inductive, with Special Application to the Science and Art of Teaching

by George Hastings McNair

3. TWO TYPES OF MIND.

Though there are many special forms of thought, yet there are but two general forms; namely, induction and deduction. Inductive thought seeks the new; deductive thought corrects the old. Similarly, there are two types of mind: the inductive type and the deductive type. The former reaches out for new things, the latter is satisfied with ordering the old. In politics the man with the inductive type of mind becomes a “Liberal” or a “Progressive”;while the man with the deductive type of mind becomes a “Conservative” or a “Standpatter.” It must be conceded that both are needed in the development of the best form of Democracy. We need an unfettered freedom as advocated by Jefferson; but we also need an ordered freedom as taught by Hamilton.