The Edinburgh lectures on mental science / by T. Troward.

  • Thomas Troward
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The Edinburgh lectures on mental science / by T. Troward. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    30/140 page 24
    24 The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. case on the hypothesis of its truth. Thus deductive reasoning proceeds on the assumption of the cor- rectness of certain hypotheses or suppositions with which it sets out: it is not concerned with the truth or falsity of those suppositions, but only with the question as to what results must necessarily follow supposing them to be true. Inductive reasoning, on the other hand, is the process by which we compare a number of separate instances with one another until we see the common factor that gives rise to them all. Induction proceeds by the comparison of facts, and deduction by the application of universal principles. Now it is the deductive method only which is followed by the subjective mind. Innu- merable experiments on persons in the hypnotic state have shown that the subjective mind is utterly incapable of making the selection and comparison which are necessary to the inductive process, but will accept any suggestion, however false, but having once accepted any suggestion, it is strictly logical in deducing the proper conclusions from it, and works out every suggestion to the minutest fraction of the results which flow from it. As a consequence of this it follows that the sub- jective mind is entirely under the control of the ob- jective mind. With the utmost fidelity it reproduces and works out to its final consequences whatever the objective mind impresses upon it; and the facts
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3