ABSTRACT
Though the line of demarcation between perfect and imperfect qualitative reasoning would seem to be tolerably precise— seeing that whilst the conclusions of the one are of the kind whose negations cannot be conceived, those of the other can have their negations conceived with greater or less difficulty— yet the approximation of the two is practically so close, that some of the second class may readily be mistaken for members of the first. These divisions, convenient, and, indeed, essential as they are, are most of them in some degree artificial. The distinction between quantitative and qualitative reasoning can scarcely be maintained in cases where the thing predicated is antecedence or subsequence in time; From that species of imperfect qualitative reasoning, which proceeds from generals to particulars, this chapter focuses on antithetical species which proceeds from particulars to generals ; in other words—to inductive reasoning.
