A System of Logic
Ratiocinative and Inductive
Assigned by 1 of the 9 reading lists, catalogue entry only
- Written
- 1843
- Form
- Treatise
- Language
- English
- Length
- Epic · 1100 ppover 700 pages
- Difficulty
- Formidable5 of 5 for a first-year reader
We recommendA System of Logic, Ratiocinative and InductiveUniversity of Toronto Press, 1974Volumes VII and VIII of the Collected Works, the standard scholarly text; most courses read only Book III or Book VI.
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Mill's longest book, in six parts. He begins with names and propositions, argues that all real inference is from particulars to particulars and that the syllogism registers rather than produces knowledge, and then builds his central account of induction: the uniformity of nature as the ground of all inference, and the four experimental methods of agreement, difference, residues and concomitant variations by which causes are found. Later books treat fallacies, and the last proposes a logic of the moral sciences, with its own account of how social laws relate to laws of individual human nature.
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The catalogue entry above is complete: the dates, the form, the themes and every program that assigns A System of Logic are verified against each program's published list.
What is missing is the part that takes real work: the summary, the key passages, and a recommended translation. The edition named below is the one most programs assign, so the buy links are useful already.
