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An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume 2

John Locke · 1690 (2nd volume in Essay Concerning Human Understanding) primary

passage 208 of 237 · BOOK III. OF WORDS. > CHAPTER XVI. OF THE DEGREES OF ASSENT. (7/9)

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in brief
He adds that when senses can’t discover things, analogy becomes the chief rule of probability, especially for reasoning about unseen causes and for building hypotheses from observed gradual connections in nature.

less valid it is, and has always less force in the mouth or writing of him that last made use of it than in his from whom he received it.

  1. Secondly, In things which Sense cannot discover, Analogy is the great Rule of Probability.
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topics: doubt, skepticism, and certainty · logic, method, and demonstration · reason and the intellect

An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume 2 · John Locke · 1690