Quotes · Quote card
Quotation from A System of Logic, Book III: Of Induction by John Stuart Mill
“If an instance in which the phenomenon under investigation occurs, and an instance in which it does not occur, have every circumstance in common save one, that one occurring only in the former; the circumstance in which alone the two instances differ, is the effect, or the cause, or an indispensable part of the cause, of the phenomenon.”
A System of Logic, Book III: Of Induction, Book III, Ch. VIII, § 2 (Second Canon) (8th ed. (New York: Harper, 1882); Project Gutenberg text)
The canon of the Method of Difference, which Mill calls the more potent instrument of investigation.
Citation: "If an instance in which the phenomenon under investigation occurs, and an instance in which it does not occur, have every circumstance in common save one, that one occurring only in the former; the circumstance in which alone the two instances differ, is the effect, or the cause, or an indispensable part of the cause, of the phenomenon." — John Stuart Mill, A System of Logic, Book III: Of Induction, Book III, Ch. VIII, § 2 (Second Canon) (8th ed. (New York: Harper, 1882); Project Gutenberg text). (id mill-system-of-logic-book-iii-q6)
Portrait: John Stuart Mill by London Stereoscopic Company, c1870, London Stereoscopic Company, Public domain.
