Most
of our empirically derived general notions are spotted with such
defects. What relation have these facts to induction? We claim that
general notions should be experimentally formed; that is, by a gradual
collection of concrete or illustrative materials, and that the logical
concepts are the final outcome of comparison and reasoning toward
conclusions. In other words, we must begin with psychical concepts
with all their faults; we must make mistakes and correct them as our
experience enlarges, and gradually work out of psychical into logical
methods and results. Our text-books usually give us the logical
concept first, the rule, definition, principle, in its most complete
and accurate statement. This does violence to the child's natural
mental movement.
The final stage of induction is the _formulation_ of the general
truths, the concepts, principles, and laws which constitute the science
of any branch of knowledge. These truths should be well formulated in
clear and expressive language and mastered in this form. Moreover, the
results reached, when reduced to the strict scientific form, are the
same in the inductive methods as in the deductive or common text-book
method.
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