"'The Law of Continuity' is this:—that a quantity cannot pass from one amount to another by any change of conditions, without passing through all intermediate magnitudes according to the intermediate conditions. It may often be employed to disprove distinctions which have no real foundation. 'The Method of Gradation' consists in taking a number of stages of a property in question, intermediate between two extreme cases which appear to be different. It is employed to determine whether the extreme cases are really distinct or not. 'The Method of Gradation', applied to decide the question, whether the existing phenomena arise from existing causes, leads to this result:—That the phenomena do appear to arise from existing causes, but that the action of existing causes have transgressed their recorded Limits of Intensity. 'The Method of Natural Classification' consists in classing cases, not according to any assumed definition, but according to the connexion of the facts themselves."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Philosophers from EnglandEconomists from EnglandAstronomers from EnglandPhysicists from EnglandGeologists from England
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Imported from EN Wikiquote
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Whewell
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
William Whewell
William Whewell (May 24, 1794 – March 6, 1866) was an English polymath, scientist, Anglican priest, philosopher, theologian and historian of science.
84 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by William Whewell →
Related Quotes
"We cannot observe external things without some degree of Thought; nor can we reflect upon our Thoughts, without being…"
"Every failure is a step to success. Every detection of what is false directs us towards what is true: every trial exh…"
"According to the technical language of old writers, a thing and its qualities are described as subject and attributes…"
"We unfold out of the Idea of Space the propositions of geometry, which are plainly truths of the most rigorous necess…"
"By speaking of space as an Idea, I intend to imply the apprehension of objects as existing in space, and of the relat…"
"A scientific writer of modern times appears to wonder that men did not at once divine the weight of the air from whic…"
"It is better to form new words as technical terms, than to employ old ones in which the last three Aphorisms cannot b…"
"Our assent to the hypothesis implies that it is held to be true of all particular instances. That these cases belong …"
"The system becomes more coherent as it is further extended. The elements which we require for explaining a new class …"
"And so no force however great can stretch a cord however fine into an horizontal line which is accurately straight."