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5. Whewell's Theory of Induction
Whewell emphasized the importance of concepts and ideas, as well as of empirical factors, in science. He was a Kantian, not an empiricist like Herschel or Mill. According to him, there are three steps of induction: (1) explication of conceptions, (2) colligation of facts by means of a conception, and (3) verification. (2) is the central idea in Whewell's theory. For example, the concept of elliptical orbit can unite all observational data of Mars into a coherent whole; this Whewell calls "the colligation of facts by means of a concept." Similarly, if we can explain and unite several disconnected facts by means of a hypothesis, this may be regarded as a candidate for such a colligation. Thus, Whewell's idea has a strong affinity to Peirce's notion of abduction. [And we can find many cases of such a colligation in the reasoning of Holmes; e.g., deciphering is a typical example, since we have to find a key pattern in order to decipher; the key pattern colligates, so to speak, disconnected words into a meaningful sentence.]
Although the central idea of Whewell's induction is different from Herschel's or Mill's, Whewell agrees with them that our knowledge of laws of nature can attain certainty (he claims even necessity). For example, if a law or hypothesis for explaining a certain kind of phenomena turns out good for explaining another kind of phenomena, he calls this "the consilience of inductions"; and this is, for Whewell, a clear case of our attaining certainty.
June 21, 1998; last modified, April 16, 2006. (c) Soshichi Uchii
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