SECTION 13. GENERALISATION OR EXTENSION. 101 



a whole age, and to be used as an almost universal principle 

 of explanation. The eighteenth century, for example, was 

 greatly under the influence of mechanical ideas. ... In these 

 later years of the nineteenth century we are dominated by 

 the idea of evolution. The biological notion of an organism 

 which grows or develops has been applied in every possible 

 field. We speak, for example, of the world as an organism 

 rather than as a machine, of the state and of society as organic. 

 And the same conception has been found useful in explaining 

 the nature of human intelligence." (Introductory Logic, p. 259.) 

 The fallacy in the absolutist theory of generalisation lay in 

 assuming that either men were ideal thinking mechanisms which 

 generalised everything to the fullest ; or that because we some- 

 times extend a proposition widely, therefore we always do so. 

 All one is entitled to assert is that when men will be thoroughly 

 trained to think in conformity with securely established scien- 

 tific principles, they will extend every proposition to the farthest 

 limits desirable and practicable in the circumstances. 



Many illustrations of the concrete process of generalisation 

 might be cited. Standing on the famous hill which commands 

 Marseilles, one person will exclaim: "How beautiful to observe 

 the town from such an eminence!" Another will say: "I must 

 observe Rome also from an imposing height." Another still : 

 "I must seek to observe some other towns from a hill or 

 mountain." And yet another: "I will endeavour to see every 

 town and place from a 'convenient altitude." However, fatigue 

 of ascent, time absorbed in reaching a height, bad weather, 

 poor views, absence of eminences, will contribute materially 

 towards persuading the over-sanguine to restrict the generali- 

 sation. Another example. One person much enjoys a circular 

 tram trip in a town which he is visiting, and he in no way 

 generalises. Another one will cautiously generalise that when 

 any town is beautiful, and other circumstances are favourable, 

 he will also enjoy a circular trip. A third person will generalise 

 unconditionally, and, if he is on an extensive tour visiting many 

 towns, he will soon learn the folly of indiscriminately generalis- 

 ing. Or one person notices in a picture gallery, without gene- 

 ralising, that every exhibit has affixed to it the date, the name 

 of the artist, and the subject, whilst another person at once 

 thinks, on perceiving the superscriptions, that every kind of 

 exhibition in the world should be as convenient for the visitor 

 as is this picture gallery. Again, in Rome, the present author 

 noticed that the General Post Office was in a court yard. When 

 he saw that this was also the case in Florence, he merely 

 registered the "coincidence". Only when the experience re- 

 peated itself in Bologna, did he vaguely and provisionally gene- 

 ralise about General Post Offices in the larger towns of Italy. 

 When, however, the Venice Post Office was found to be in a 

 court yard, he consciously generalised. 



