ERROR AND FALLACIES 299 



Assents to false judgments on immediate &quot; apparent &quot; evidence, 

 he calls fallacies of simple inspection. If the evidence is mediate, 

 we may have fallacies of inference. These he subdivides into 

 fallacies of confusion, in which there is &quot; an indistinct, indefinite, 

 and fluctuating conception of what the evidence is &quot; ; * and falla 

 cies due to &quot; a false estimate of the probative force of known 

 evidence&quot;. 2 The latter may be incident either to deduction or to 

 induction ; and in each case it may be due either to the assumption 

 of false premisses, or to a miscalculation of the probative force of 

 true ones. The assumption of false premisses in deduction he 

 identifies with fallacies of simple inspection ; wrong estimates 

 of the probative force of deductive arguments he calls fallacies of 

 ratiocination. The two corresponding types of fallacy in induc 

 tion he calls respectively fallacies of observation and fallacies of 

 generalization. Thus we reach five main classes, some of which 

 are made to yield a number of sub-classes. The following scheme 

 will show forth the various members of the division : 



Fallacies. 



(1) Of simple inspection ; Of inference ; 



I 



I I 



(2) Of confusion ; Of miscalculation of force of evidence. 



| 



Of deduction. Of induction. 



I I 



( I ) Assumption of false premisses ; (4) Fallacies of observation ; 



(3) Fallacies of ratiocination ; (5) Fallacies of generalization. 



This classification is based upon an intelligible principle, but 

 it is not exhaustive as it stands ; its headings are very general, 

 and we shall find a more convenient plan of treatment than to 

 try to work these out in detail. 



(b) Bacon s classification of the sources of error, or obstacles to the 

 right &quot;interpretation of nature&quot; is not without interest. He calls them 

 &quot; Idola &quot; phantoms which mislead the mind in the processes which sub 

 serve induction, just as &quot;sophistical reasonings&quot; mislead in ordinary argu 

 mentation? He reduces them to four great classes; (i) &quot;Idola Tribus&quot; 



1 Logic, V., vii., i. 2 ibid. s Nov. Org., i., Aph. xl.-lxviii. 



