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Home > Quote from "Harvard Lectures on the Logic of Science. Lecture X: Grounds of Induction"

Commens
Digital Companion to C. S. Peirce
‘Hypothesis [as a form of reasoning]’ (pub. 02.02.13-17:12). Quote in M. Bergman & S. Paavola (Eds.), The Commens Dictionary: Peirce's Terms in His Own Words. New Edition. Retrieved from http://www.commens.org/dictionary/entry/quote-harvard-lectures-logic-science-lecture-x-grounds-induction-2.
Term: 
Hypothesis [as a form of reasoning]
Quote: 

But the manner in which they have attained to certainty indicates a very different general strength of the three kinds of inference. [—] Thus we have in order of strength Deduction, Induction, Hypothesis. Deduction, in fact, is the only demonstration; yet no one thinks of questioning a good induction, while hypothesis is proverbially dangerous. Hypotheses non fingo, said Newton, striving to place his theory on a basis of strict induction. Yet it is hypotheses with which we must start; the baby when he lies turning his fingers before his eyes is making a hypothesis as to the connection of what he sees and what he feels. Hypotheses give us our facts. Induction extends our knowledge. Deduction makes it distinct.

Source: 
Peirce, C. S. (1865). Harvard Lectures on the Logic of Science. Lecture X: Grounds of Induction. MS [W] 106; MS [R] 347.
References: 
W 1:283
Date of Quote: 
1865
URL: 

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