The principles of science : a treatise on logic and scientific method / by W. Stanley Jevons.

  • Jevons, William Stanley, 1835-1882.
Date:
1874
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The principles of science : a treatise on logic and scientific method / by W. Stanley Jevons. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    THE PRINCIPLES OF SCIENCE, CHAPTEE I. INTRODUCTION. SCIENCE arises from the discovery of Identity amid Diversity. The process may be described in many dif ferent words, but our language must always imply the presence of one common and necessary element. In every act of inference or scientific method we are engaged about a certain identity, sameness, similarity, likeness, resemblance, analogy, equivalence or equality apparent between two objects. It is doubtful whether an entirely isolated phenomenon could present itself to our notice, since there must always be a contrast between object and object to awaken our consciousness. But in any case an isolated phenomenon could be studied to no useful purpose. The whole value of science consists in the power which it confers upon us of applying to one object the knowledge acquired from like objects; and it is only so far, therefore, as we can discover and register resemblances or differences that we can turn our obser vations to account. Nature is a spectacle continually exhibited to our senses, in which phenomena are mingled in combina tions of endless variety and novelty. Wonder fixes the mind's attention; memory stores up a record of each B