Single Idea 19243

[catalogued under 14. Science / A. Basis of Science / 2. Demonstration]

Full Idea

Were every probable inference less certain than its premises, science, which piles inference upon inference, often quite deeply, would soon be in a bad way.

Gist of Idea

If each inference slightly reduced our certainty, science would soon be in trouble

Source

Charles Sanders Peirce (Reasoning and the Logic of Things [1898], IV)

Book Reference

Peirce,Charles Sanders: 'Reasoning and the Logic of Things', ed/tr. Ketner,K.L. [Harvard 1992], p.165


A Reaction

This seems to endorse Aristotle's picture of demonstration about scientific and practical things as being a form of precise logic, rather than progressive probabilities. Our generalisations may be more certain than the particulars they rely on.