It may
well be doubted whether, with average minds, real scientific knowledge
is attainable except by a strong admixture of inductive processes.
Perfection in the form and structure of our concepts is not to be
attained by children nor by adults, but the ideal of scientific
accuracy in general notions is to be kept constantly in view and
approximated to the extent of our ability.
After all, _deduction_ performs a much more important part in the work
of building up concepts than the previous discussion would indicate.
As fast as psychical concepts are formed we clamber upon them and try
to get a better view of the field around us. Like captured guns, we
turn them at once upon the enemy and make them perform service in new
fields of conquest. If a new case or object appears we judge of it in
the light of our acquired concepts, no matter whether they are complete
and accurate or not. This is deduction. We are glad to gain any
vantage ground in judging the objects and phenomena constantly
presenting themselves. In fact, it is inevitable that inductive and
deductive processes will be constantly dovetailed into each other. The
faulty concepts arrived at are brought persistently into contact with
new individual cases.
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