(4) “Bad boys usually receive unjust treatment.”
(5) “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
CHAPTER 19.
THE AUXILIARY ELEMENTS OF INDUCTION.
OBSERVATION—EXPERIMENT—HYPOTHESIS.
1. THE FOUNDATION OF INDUCTIVE GENERALIZATIONS.
Induction is the process of universalizing particular facts. The starting point is the fact. Through observation the investigator gathers facts, and then works them over with a view of finding uniformities. The mind cannot build inductive generalizations without facts any more than a mason can build a brick wall without the bricks.
A fact is any particular thing made or done or is that which may be acquired by means of the presentative (perception and imagination) powers of the mind. The state of awareness which results from the observation of facts is an individual notion. This presents another aspect of the inductive process; namely, “It is a matter of building general notions from individual notions, acquired by the observation of facts.” To illustrate: I note that A, B, C and D are honest in their dealings with me, hence I come to the conclusion that some men are honest. A fact is something done, consequently the actual doing of the honest things by A, B, C and D are facts. Each state of awareness of each fact is an individual notion. The mind now discerns a uniformity in these facts and derives the general notion that “some men are honest.”
2. OBSERVATION.
Facts are acquired by means of observation. When the mind fixes the attention upon any phenomenon it observes it. The term observation means “to watch for” and may be defined as the act of watching for phenomena as they may occur. The observation may be only casual, or it may be willed or rational. It is the latter aspect which most concerns the logician. In this sense observation means careful, painstaking, systematic perception. It involves the concentration of consciousness upon the case in hand, or the actual giving of attention. The thing observed may be external, when the observation takes the form of sense-perception; or it may be internal, when the observation becomes a matter of introspection.