PART IV. 



METHOD ; OR THE APPLICATION OF LOGICAL PRO 

 CESSES TO THE ATTAINMENT OF TRUTH. 



CHAPTER I. 

 GENERAL OUTLINE OF METHOD. 



200. TRANSITION TO PART IV. We have now completed 

 our examination of the formal aspect of the reasoning process, 

 and of the rules that guarantee its formal correctness or validity 

 (Part III.). But the object of all reasoning, of all science and 

 philosophy in fact, is to arrive at a certain knowledge of truth ; 

 and, to secure this, it is not enough that our reasoning processes 

 be correct or valid formally : the judgments involved in them 

 must, furthermore, be all both true and certain. 



Truth is, as we saw (9, 79), contained in the mental act of 

 judgment, to which the operations both of inference and of 

 conception are thus subsidiary. An analysis of the material or 

 &quot; truth &quot; aspect of inference will therefore, of necessity, direct our 

 attention once more to the judgments of which our inferences 

 are composed, and to the concepts or ideas which enter into 

 our judgments (Parts I. and II.). After having separately 

 examined each of the three mental operations, of conception, 

 judgment, and inference, our next concern is to inquire how we 

 reach true judgments, especially those true universal judgments 

 which constitute scientific knowledge : how, in other words, we 

 are to exercise those three mental operations on the data of 

 knowledge to the best advantage for the acquiring of truth : how 

 we are to regulate and co-ordinate those mental acts, conception, 

 judgment, and reasoning, in exploring the various departments 

 of the knowable universe. This portion of logical doctrine is 

 variously described as applied logic, methodology, or the science 

 of logical method. 



VOL. II. I 



