INDUCTION IN ITS VARIOUS SENSES 39 



We shall see this principle applied later on by J. S. Mill, and uni 

 versally adopted. But, for its safe application we do not need, 

 as Bacon. taught, to have antecedently elaborated a completely 

 exhaustive catalogue of all the &quot; forms &quot; and &quot; sense-qualities &quot; 

 in the universe. It will suffice to eliminate all the possible 

 pertinent alternatives, suggested by a careful analysis of the matter 

 under investigation. 



But, owing to the enumerative character of the process as 

 conceived by Bacon, and to the practical impossibility of a com 

 plete enumeration of the alternative factors involved, the process, 

 so applied, could never reach a necessary and universal law : for 

 (to use Bacon s own words) when &quot; the axiom being established 

 is more extensive and broader &quot; than &quot; those particulars out of 

 which it is extracted &quot; (Novum Organon, i., 105, 106) and this is 

 what happens as long as his impossible &quot;catalogues&quot; are not 

 complete and absolutely reliable he fails to indicate any prin 

 ciple (other than enumeration) which might justify him in drawing 

 a universal conclusion from such a defective enumeration of alter 

 natives. This, then, is a second serious defect of the &quot; method &quot;. 



Next, it must be pointed out that although he says &quot; In 

 duction which proceeds by simple enumeration is a puerile thing 

 and concludes uncertainly&quot; (i., 105), and that &quot;the syllogism is 

 not applied at all to the principles of science&quot; (i. , 13), yet, as 

 a matter of fact, his whole process is a simple application of the 

 categorical syllogism in the second figure, combined with the 

 modus tollendo ponens of the mixed disjunctive syllogism ; in which 

 latter, moreover, the disjunctive major is assumed to be complete, 

 even though his catalogues of forms and qualities remained incom 

 plete throughout. Bacon s own example will illustrate this. 



Let / be the &quot; form &quot; of heat (the &quot; form &quot; we are en 

 deavouring to detect or select from among all the known 

 &quot;forms&quot;). Let h represent the sensible quality of heat. Let 

 A, B, . . . Y, Z, represent the whole collection of &quot; forms &quot; or 

 &quot; natures &quot; in the universe. Then : 



/is either A or B or C or . . . X or Y or Z ; 



(1) But A is not present with h, 

 And / is present with h, 

 Therefore /&quot;is not A ; 



(2) And B is present in the absence of h, 

 While /is not present in the absence of h t 

 Therefore /is not B ; 



