Philosophy 2203E Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: John Stuart Mill, Antoine Lavoisier, Fair Coin
3 Oct 2016
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Never advance but from what is known to what is unknown". Never form any conclusion which is not an immediate consequence necessarily flowing from observation & experiment" present the conclusions drawn from the facts in an order that makes them as easy to comprehend as possible. The third point, regarding the presentation of ideas, is motivated by the state of chemistry as a science at the time lavoisier is writing. The science is, as lavoisier points out, in need of unification; as a discipline, chemistry still has many chasms, which interrupt the series of facts, & often render them extremely difficult to reconcile with each other". [t]he fondness for reducing all the bodies in nature to 3 or 4 elements, proceeds from a prejudice which has descended to us from the greek philosophers". The assumption of 4 elements is a mere hypothesis".
