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XXXV111 



Appendix. 



Induction and Necessary Truth. By the Rev. It. Kidd, LL.D 



[Read before the Auckland Institute, 6th January, 1874.] 



ANALYSIS. 



and 



Meaning of the Greek word epagoge. 



Aristotle's definition. 



Note on a different interpretation. 



" Incomplete " Induction. Bacon. 



Philosophy of Induction recent, 

 hitherto confined to England. "Whately, 

 Whewcll, Herschel, Mill. 



Definition of Induction (Mill's). Induc- 

 tive propositions are general. 



The result of an induction is a propo- 

 sition. 



Inductive conclusions are "probable." 



Necessary Truth : Analysis of an arith- 

 metical proposition. 



Necessary truths are hypothetic. 



Definition of Self-evident Proposition. 



Definition of Necessary Truth. 



Relations of Necessary Truth to Experi- 

 ence : Experience gives the conceptions 

 of things . 



Experience verifies. 



The distinctions of Inductive and Neces- 

 sary, and of Deduced and Self-evident, 

 are not absolute, but relative. 



It is the purpose of this paper, first, to inquire whether we are in posses- 

 sion of any general truths of which our knowledge is not dependent upon 

 Induction ; then, to suggest a definition of Necessary Truth more precise and 

 more real, as it appears to me, than that which is visually given ; and thence 

 to indicate more determinately the relations of Necessary Truth to Experience. 

 The results thus arrived at may, on a future occasion, be applied to elucidating 

 the Ground of Induction, or the rational basis of Generalization from 

 Experience. 



We shall, therefore, begin with inquiring what it is exactly that we mean 

 when we employ this term Induction ; for it is a term in the employment of 

 which there has been much vagueness. It appears to have been first used 

 in its technical application by Cicero, as the Latin rendering of the Greek 

 word which had been similarly applied. In general speech the word epagoge, 

 to which induction exactly corresponds, meant leading onward ; and, when 

 applied specifically to a mental process, it denoted a certain progression of the 

 mind j viz., that which consists in being induced, by the consideration of 

 appropriate instances, to adopt some general conclusion. The philosophic 

 appropriation of the term originated with Aristotle — that great pioneer in the 

 analytic of thought, and also in physical observation. It may be somewhat 

 interesting to revert for a little to what we may call the primordial definition 

 of Induction, or that given by Aristotle himself. The most formal definition 

 given by him is comprised in one brief sentence ; but, when cited as an isolated 

 quotation, its phraseology is peculiar. The import of Induction is assigned 

 by the old Grecian as follows (Analyt. Pr. II. 23) : — " Induction and Induc- 

 tive Syllogism are the concluding by means of one Extreme (the Minor), that 



