Introduction

The story of John Stuart Mill's study of logic found in his Autobiography is well known-though perhaps not as well known as his story of his learning ancient Greek and of first reading Plato at the ages of three and seven respectively. Mill argued that a person failing to conceive the opposite of a truth does not make that truth necessary-it is merely an instance of the psychological law of indissoluble or inseparable association. According to Mill, scientific induction gives accuracy and precision to the process of determining certain and universal inductions, beyond "the loose and uncertain mode of induction per enumerationem simplicem", allowing further enquiry into causes and effects The book Mill's A System of Logic, and its reviews, became part of a revival in the study of logic taking place in the second quarter of the nineteenth century in Britain. Mill's views on induction received similar negative treatment in the periodical press-especially following the publication of Whewell's pamphlet.