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How do we know anything, and how can we reason correctly about the world? In this great treatise John Stuart Mill examines words and propositions, the…
How do we know anything, and how can we reason correctly about the world? In this great treatise John Stuart Mill examines words and propositions, the syllogism and deduction, and then induction, the reasoning from particular facts to general laws on which all science depends. He sets out five methods for discovering causes, the methods of agreement, of difference, of residues, of concomitant variations and their joint use, which are still taught today, and in the last book he asks how the same methods can be applied to the study of human character and society.
Context and significance
Mill (1806–1873) published the book in 1843, and it was the standard work on logic and scientific method in the English-speaking world for half a century. It is demanding but clear. Mill describes its long preparation in his Autobiography, and his best-known work is On Liberty.
About the author
John Stuart Mill (1806–1873) received one of the most intense educations ever recorded: his father taught him Greek at three and Latin at eight, and by his teens he was writing on economics. At twenty he fell into a deep depression and found his way out through the poetry of Wordsworth, an experience that taught him the value of feeling alongside reason.
He worked for thirty-five years at the East India Company, wrote on logic, economics and politics, and shared his intellectual life with Harriet Taylor, whom he married in 1851. As a Member of Parliament he proposed votes for women in 1867. His On Liberty, Utilitarianism and The Subjection of Women are still at the centre of debate.