A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive Being a Connected View of the Principles of Evidence, and the Methods of Scientific Investigation

This two-volume work, first published in 1843, was John Stuart Mill's first major book. It reinvented the modern study of logic and laid the foundations for his later work in the areas of political economy, women's rights and representative government. In clear, systematic prose, Mill (1806–73) disentangles syllogistic logic from its origins in Aristotle and scholasticism and grounds it instead in processes of inductive reasoning. An important attempt at integrating empiricism within a more general theory of human knowledge, the work constitutes essential reading for anyone seeking a full understanding of Mill's thought. Continuing the discussion of induction, Volume 2 concludes with Book VI, 'On the Logic of the Moral Sciences', in which Mill applies empirical reasoning to human behaviour. A crucial early formulation of his thinking regarding free will and necessity, this book establishes the centrality of 'the social science' to Mill's philosophy.

Book III. On Induction (continued): 14. Of the limits to the explanation of laws of nature; and of hypotheses; 15. Of progressive effects; and of the continued action of causes; 16. Of empirical laws; 17. Of chance, and its elimination; 18. Of the calculation of chances; 19. Of the extension of derivative laws to adjacent cases; 20. Of analogy; 21. Of the evidence of the law of universal causation; 22. Of uniformities of co-existence not dependent upon causation; 23. Of approximate generalizations, and probable evidence; 24. Of the remaining laws of nature; 25. Of the grounds of disbelief; Book IV. Of Operations Subsidiary to Induction: 1. Of observation, and description; 2. Of abstraction, of the formation of conceptions; 3. Of naming, as subsidiary to induction; 4. Of the requisites of a philosophical language; and the principles of definition; 5. Of the natural history of the variations in the meaning of terms; 6. The principles of a philosophical language further considered; 7. Of classification, as subsidiary to induction; 8. Of classification by series; Book V. On Fallacies: 1. Of fallacies in general; 2. Classification of fallacies; 3. Fallacies of simple inspection, or à priori fallacies; 4. Fallacies of observation; 5. Fallacies of generalization; 6. Fallacies of ratiocination; 7. Fallacies of confusion; Book VI. On the Logic of the Moral Sciences: 1. Introductory remarks; 2. Of liberty and necessity; 3. That there is, or may be, a science of human nature; 4. Of the laws of mind; 5. Of ethology, or the science of the formation of character; 6. General considerations on the social science; 7. Of the chemical, or experimental method in the social science; 8. Of the geometrical, or abstract method; 9. Of the physical, or concrete deductive method; 10. Of the inverse deductive, or historical method; 11. Of the logic of practice, or art; including morality and policy.

In this two-volume work of 1843, John Stuart Mill (1806-73) establishes the principles of inductive reasoning and experimental method that inform his later works of political and social philosophy. Volume 2 includes Book VI, 'On the Logic of the Moral Sciences', an important early treatment of social science.