opened in the following pages appear to myself original, and of some importance, I will not deny; but the reception these may meet with, I shall regard as a matter of comparative indifference, if my labours be found useful in training the mind to those habits of reflection on its own operations, which may enable it to superadd to the instructions of the schools, that higher education which no schools can bestow.

Kinneil-House, 22d November, 1813.

CONTENTS.

OF REASON, OR THE UNDERSTANDING, PROPERLY SO CALLED; AND

THE VARIOUS FACULTIES AND OPERATIONS MORE IMMEDIATELY

CONNECTED WITH IT,.

Preliminary Observations on the Vagueness and Ambiguity of the com-

mon Philosophical Language relative to this part of our Constitution.

-Reason and Reasoning,-Understanding,-Intellect,—Judgment,

&c.......

.......

CHAP. I.-Of the Fundamental Laws of Human Belief; or the Pri-

mary Elements of Human Reason,..

Page

1

ib.

SECT. I Of Mathematical Axioms,..

II. Continuation of the same Subject,..

SECT. II. Of certain Laws of Belief, inseparably connected

with the exercise of Consciousness, Memory, Perception,

and Reasoning,....

SECT. III. Continuation of the Subject.-Critical remarks on

some late Controversies to which it has given rise. Of the

Appeals which Dr. Reid and some other Modern Writers

have made, in their Philosophical Discussions, to Common

Sense, as a Criterion of Truth,.....

CHAP. II.-Of Reasoning and of Deductive Evidence,..

SECT. I.

25

26

ib.

42

48

...

66

87

ib.

I. Doubts with respect to Locke's Distinction between

the Powers of Intuition and of Reasoning,........ ib.

Page

II. Conclusions obtained by a process of Deduction

often mistaken for Intuitive Judgments,...

95

SECT. II-Of General Reasoning,......

101

I. Illustrations of some Remarks formerly stated in

treating of Abstraction.......

ib.

II. Continuation of the Subject.-Of Language consi-

dered as an Instrument of Thought,......

III. Continuation of the Subject.-Visionary Theories

of some Logicians, occasioned by their inattention to

the Essential Distinction between Mathematics

and other Sciences,......

128

.... 132

IV. Continuation of the Subject.-Peculiar and super-

eminent Advantages possessed by Mathematicians,

in consequence of their definite Phraseology....... 141

SECT. III.-Of Mathematical Demonstration,.....

144

I. Of the Circumstance on which Demonstrative Evi-

dence essentially depends,..

ib.

II. Continuation of the Subject.-How far it is true

that all Mathematical Evidence is resolvable into

Identical Propositions,

III. Continuation of the Subject.-Evidence of the

Mechanical Philosophy, not to be confounded with

that which is properly called Demonstrative or

Mathematical. Opposite Error of some late Wri-

ters,

SECT. IV. Of our Reasonings concerning Probable or Contin-

gent Truths,.....

157

170

194

I. Narrow Field of Demonstrative Evidence.-Of

Demonstrative Evidence, when combined with that

of Sense, as in Practical Geometry; and with those

of Sense and of Induction, as in the Mechanical

Philosophy-Remarks on a Fundamental law of

Belief, involved in all our Reasonings concerning

Contingent Truths,. . . . . .
.... ib.

II. Continuation of the Subject.-Of that Permanence

or Stability in the Order of Nature, which is pre-

supposed in our Reasonings concerning Contingent

Truths,

201

III. Continuation of the Subject.-General Remarks on

the Difference between the Evidence of Experience,

and that of Analogy,................

IV. Continuation of the Subject.-Evidence of Testi-

mony tacitly recognized as a ground of Belief, in our

most certain Conclusions concerning Contingent

Truths. Difference between the logical and the

popular meanings of the word Probability,

CHAP. III-Of the Aristotelian Logic,.......

"........

SECT. I. Of the Demonstrations of the Syllogistic Rules given

by Aristotle and his Commentators,. . . . .

SECT. II.-General reflections on the Aim of the Aristotelian

Logic, and on the Intellectual Habits which the study of it

has a tendency to form.-That the improvement of the

power of Reasoning ought to be regarded as only a secondary

Object in the Culture of Understanding,..

SECT. III. In what respects the study of the Aristotelian Logic

may be useful to Disputants.-A general acquaintance with

it justly regarded as an essential accomplishment to those

who are liberally educated.-Doubts suggested by some late

Writers, concerning Aristotle's claims to the invention of the

Syllogistic Theory,

Page

218

229

235

ib.

260

278

CHAP. IV. Of the Method of Inquiry pointed out in the Experi-

mental or Inductive Logic,..

297

SECT. I. Mistakes of the Ancients concerning the proper object

of Philosophy.-Ideas of Bacon on the same subject.—Induc-

tive Reasoning.-Analysis and Synthesis.-Essential differ-
ence between Legitimate and Hypothetical Theories,...... ib.

SECT. II. Continuation of the Subject.-The Induction of Aris-

totle compared with that of Bacon,.

....... 327

SECT. III. Of the Import of the words Analysis and Synthesis in

the Language of Modern Philosophy,....

.....

I. Preliminary Observations on the Analysis and Syn-

thesis of the Greek Geometricians,..

341

ib.

II. Critical Remarks on the vague Use, among Modern

Writers, of the Terms Analysis and Synthesis,.... 353

SECT. IV. The Consideration of the Inductive Logic resumed,.. 369

I. Additional Remarks on the distinction between

Experience and Analogy.-Of the grounds afforded

by the latter for Scientific Inference and Conjecture, ib.

xii

II. Use and Abuse of Hypotheses in Philosophical Inqui-

ries.-Difference between Gratuitous Hypotheses,

and those which are supported by presumptions sug-

gested by Analogy.-Indirect Evidence which a

Hypothesis may derive from its agreement with the

Phenomena.-Cautions against extending some of

these conclusions to the Philosophy of the Human
Mind,

III. Supplemental Observations on the words Induction

Page

388

and Analogy, as used in Mathematics,...... .... 412

SECT. V. Of certain misapplications of the words Experience

and Induction in the phraseology of Modern Science.—Illus-

trations from Medicine and from Political Economy,...... 419
SECT. VI. Of the Speculation concerning Final Causes,.

I. Opinion of Lord Bacon on the subject.-Final Causes

rejected by Des Cartes, and by the majority of

French Philosophers.-Recognized as legitimate

Objects of research by Newton.-Tacitly acknow-

ledged by all as a useful Logical Guide, even in

Sciences which have no immediate relation to The-

437

ology,

ib.

II. Danger of confounding Final with Physical Causes

in the Philosophy of the Human Mind,..

457

Conclusion of Part Second,.

468

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS,.

477