date

2 Oct. 1814 Logic 15
2 Oct. 1814

Logic

15

Ch.2. Ontology

Entities classed

49

15

Prone as is the human mind to the making of hasty and incompletely /imperfectly/-grounded inductions in /on/ the field of physics /physical science/, it can not but be much more so in the fields of psychology and ethics, in which is included the field of politics: commonly not only is the collection made of influencing circumstances incomplete, but uninfluencing circumstances, and even obstacles, are placed in the station of, and held up to view in the character of, principally or even exclusively operating causes.

Thus superior is the density of the clouds which overhang the relation between cause and effect in the field of morals, as compared with the field of physics. Two concurring considerations may help us to account for this difference, - 1. The elements of calculation being in so large a proportion of the psychical class - such as intentions, affections, and motives, - are, in a proportional degree, situated out of the reach of direct observation. 2. In the making of the calculation, the judgment is, in a peculiar degree, liable to be disturbed and led astray by the several sources of illusion, - by original intellectual weakness, by sinister interest, by interest-begotten prejudice, and by adopted prejudice.

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