INDUCTIVE PHILOSOPHY 



other substances or phenomena that have greater or 

 less similarity with those in question ; determining and 

 noting the points of similarity or of difference, and 

 repeating the observations indefinitely until a large 

 number of data are obtained sufficiently great to 

 admit of classification. The phenomena common to 

 or in certain groups can thus be shown to be dependent 

 upon causes or phenomena back of them again ; and 

 thus continuing to rise from individual phenomena 

 to those of higher generalization, and still higher as 

 observation or experiment may furnish material or 

 occasion, until the cause nearest to the ultimate cause 

 may be reached. In this proceeding a certain amount 

 of deductive reasoning is frequently involved. Causes 

 or conditions have often to be assumed, from which 

 deductions may be made in order to test the existence 

 or correctness of other conditions or phenomena that 

 should be present, if the true theories or causes sought 

 for agree substantially with those that were assumed. 

 This assumption is an Hypothesis. 



Bacon's mathematical knowledge was not of a 

 very' high order. He stood far behind Descartes, 

 Kepler and Galileo. It was his comparative igno- 

 rance as a mathematician that prevented him from 

 appreciating the great discoveries of the latter. He 

 never accepted the Copernican system of Astronomy. 

 He could not conceive the possibility of the move- 



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