From: The Dial, Vol. II No. IV (April 1842)
Author:
Published: E. P. Peabody 1842 Boston
The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, founded upon their History. By the Rev. WILLIAM WHEWELL, B. D., Fellow of Trinity College, and Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Cambridge, Vice-President of the Geological Society of London. London: 1840. 2 vols. 8vo.
THIS work contains the moral of the tale that was told in the author’s history of the inductive sciences. The author’s aim is great and noble—to give the philosophy of inductive science; to inquire “what that organ or intellectual method is, by which solid truth is to be extracted from the observation of nature.” Of course the work must be critical in part, and positive in part. It contains “A criticism of the fallacies of the ultra-Lockian school.” The author does not stop at great names, nor hesitate to dissent from Bacon, Cuvier, and even from Newton himself. He now and then adopts Kant’s reasoning, but differs widely from him; and while he acknowledges his great obligations to Schelling, yet ventures to condemn some of his opinions. The book is designed, in some measure, to take the place of Bacon’s Novum Organon. It is one of the boldest philosophical attempts of the present century. The author measures himself against the greatest of all the sons of science. Shall he stand or fall?
The work opens with a preface containing one hundred and thirteen aphorisms “respecting ideas,” fifty-six “concerning science,” and seventeen greater aphorisms, respecting the “language of science.” The third aphorism, respecting ideas, will show the school of philosophy to which Professor Whewell belongs.
“The Alphabet, by means of which we interpret Phenomena, consists of the Ideas existing in our own minds; for these give to the phenomena that coherence and significance which is not an object of sense.”
Again, Aphorisms vii. and viii.—“Ideas are not transformed, but informed Sensations, for without ideas sensations have no form.”
“The Sensations are the Objective, the Ideas the Subjective part of every act of perception or knowledge.”
And Aphorism iv. concerning science.—“Facts are the materials of Science, but all Facts involve Ideas. Since, in observing Facts, we cannot exclude Ideas, we must, for the purposes of science, take care that the Ideas are clear, and rigorously applied.”
Aphorism xxxiv.—“The process of Induction may be resolved into three steps; the Selection of the Idea, the Construction of the Conception, and the Determination of the Magnitudes.”
These aphorisms occupy about a hundred valuable pages. The author then comes to the real work, the “Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences.” This is divided into two parts: I. of IDEAS; II. of Knowledge.
Part I. is distributed into ten books, treating of ideas in general; the philosophy of the pure sciences; that of the mechanical sciences; that of the secondary mechanical sciences; that of the mechanico- chemical sciences; the philosophy of morphology; that of the classificatory sciences; of biology; and of palaetiology.
Part II. is divided into three books, which treat of the construction of science; of former opinions upon the nature of knowledge, and the means of seeking it; and of methods employed in the formation of science.
The above hasty sketch shows what a wide field the author enters upon and passes over. We hope in a subsequent number of this Journal to follow him into details, and examine his method; and trust soon to see an American reprint of the book, for at present its price confines it to few hands.
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