William Whewell's "Discoverer's Induction" (Part 6/Final Part)

Previous posts: William Whewell's "Discoverer's Induction" (Part 1) 

William Whewell's "Discoverer's Induction" (Part 2)

William Whewell's "Discoverer's Induction" (Part 3)
William Whewell's "Discoverer's Induction" (Part 4)

William Whewell's "Discoverer's Induction" (Part 5)

Introduction

This final part of my series on Dr. William Whewell will discuss the four tests he believes can determine the veracity and applicability of a true colligation, an induction. I have named these four tests as (1) Deductive Consistency, (2) Prediction of Past and Future Phenomenal Events, (3) Consilience of Inductions, and lastly, (4) Simplicity and Unity. Additionally, this part will discuss what Whewell termed the “Logic of Induction.” Whewell’s “Logic of Induction” will cover how inductive generalizations can be expressed in Inductive Tables and how they can represent the criterion of truth. Lastly, this part will provide a summary of what Whewell believes scientific induction to be.

William Whewell's "Discoverer's Induction" (Part 3)

Previous posts: William Whewell's "Discoverer's Induction" (Part 1)

William Whewell's "Discoverer's Induction" (Part 2)
 

The Structure of Knowledge

Before Whewell can fully articulate the details of how induction works in scientific methodology and in theory-formation, he needs to explain several related issues. He has to express his views on the source(s) of knowledge, how people construct conceptual knowledge, and how we can justify what we’ve learned. In short, he has to first construct his epistemology (theory of knowledge) to then discuss how his theory of induction builds on that foundation. In Part 3 of this series on Whewell, we will cover his controversial notion of fundamental ideas, how we produce conceptions and the complementary processes of explication and colligation.