James: Empiricism

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„Now, ordinary empiricism, in spite of the fact that conjunctive and disjunctive relations present themselves as being fully co-ordinate parts of experience, has always shown a tendency to do away with the connections of things, and to insist most on the disjunctions. Berkeley’s nominalism, Hume’s statement that whatever things we distinguish are as ‚loose and separate‘ as if they had ’no manner of connection.‘ James Mill’s denial that similars have anything ‚really‘ in common, the resolution of the causal tie into habitual sequence, John Mill’s account of both physical things and selves as composed of discontinuous possibilities, and the general pulverization of all Experience by association and the mind-dust theory, are examples of what I mean.“ (p. 38) #James #empiricism #experience #Berkeley #Hume #Mill

Mill: Logic and Language

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„Logic is a portion of the Art of Thinking: Language is evidently, and by the admission of all philosophers, one of the principal instruments or helps of thought; and any imperfection in the instrument, or in the mode of employing it, is confessedly liable, still more than in almost any other art, to confuse and impede the process, and destroy all ground of confidence in the result.“ (Chap. I, §1) #Mill #logic #language #ArtOfThinking

Mill: Logic and Knowledge

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„Logic, however, is not the same thing with knowledge, though the field of logic is co-extensive with the field of knowledge. Logic is the common judge and arbiter of all particular investigations. It does not undertake to find evidence, but to determine whether it has been found. Logic neither observes, nor invents, nor discovers; but judges.“ (Intro. §5) #Mill #logic #knowledge

Mill: Ars Artium

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„It is in this sense that logic is, what it was so expressively called by the schoolmen and by Bacon, ars artium; the science of science itself.“ (Intro. §5) #Mill #ArsArtium #logic #Bacon

Mill: Logic

Zitat

„Logic, then, is the science of the operations of the understanding which are subservient to the estimation of evidence: both the process itself of advancing from known truths to unknown, and all other intellectual operations in so far as auxiliary to this. It includes, therefore, the operation of Naming; for language is an instrument of thought, as well as a means of communicating our thoughts. It includes, also, Definition, and Classification.“ (Intro. §7) #Mill #Logic #Naming #Definition #Classification