The fourth class of truths is contained in mediate judgments which are the result of an inductive process generalizing the individual, concrete data of direct sense-perception into laws of a universal character.
The generalizations and laws of experimental science are of this type. After careful investigation and extensive experimentation the intellect perceives the essential elements in a series of repeated phenomena and occurrences and then expresses the true cause in a definite judgment or law.
It is not necessary for science to investigate every single case of the past and present; that, in fact, would be impossible. Since I have arrived at knowledge of the essential elements of the phenomenon in question, the law which the intellect has formulated has a universal and necessary value and applies with equal force to each and every phenomenon of that class.
An instance will make this clear. It was noticed that the boiling point of water is always +212 degrees Fahrenheit at sea level. Taking this as a starting point, scientists made a great number of experiments of boiling water at seal level, and the result was in each case the same: water boiled at +212 degrees Fahrenheit.
Thus the law was formulated by means of a generalization: 'The boiling point of water is +212 degree Fahrenheit at sea level.' This being an essential characteristic of water, it was not necessary to take every drop of water on the globe to sea level and boil it; scientists know that it will boil, because such is the nature of water.
Every such law is a mediate judgment which expresses a necessary and universal truth, based upon the Principle of Sufficient Reason and the Principle of Causality.
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The Epistemological Problem
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