I 



SCIENTIFIC METHOD AS A MENTAL 

 OPERATION l 



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(THOMAS CASE) 



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(ARISTOTLE) 



SCIENTIFIC METHOD is simply the way in which 

 inferences are arranged in any science.: We must 

 therefore begin by saying something about inferences. 

 The first definite classification of inference was due to 

 Aristotle, who discerned that sometimes we infer from 

 particular to particular, sometimes from particular to 

 universal, sometimes from universal to particular 2 . These 

 1 chree kinds of inference are what we now call analogical, 

 inductive and deductive. When I conclude that, as this 

 and that body press, so does another body, I infer from 

 particular to particular by analogy, or what Aristotle 

 :alled ' example ' : when I conclude that, as this and 

 that body press, so do all bodies, I infer from particular 

 to universal by induction : when I infer that, as all bodies 

 press, so does this body, I infer from universal to par- 



1 The gist of this Lecture was delivered from notes. When some- 

 thing had to be written out for the Press, the writer found himself unable 

 compress it into the compass of an hour's lecture. Even in its 

 extended form, it does not say enough about imagination and opinion 

 m relation to science. 



2 Aristotle, Prior Analytics, ii, 24. 



S. L. B 



