Item 174 - William Whewell to Richard Jones

Lancaster - WW is 'sorry to hear of the result of the Poor Law speculation and grieved to think of the annoyance' it will cause RJ: 'What an insatiable monster the Chancellor is!'. WW has written out some of the general views of his philosophy of Induction: 'You will see that a main feature is the assertion of ideas and facts as equally and conjointly necessary to science - also the opposition between the indistinct knowledge which is implied in the use of common language, and the distinct knowledge for which induction inquires; - also the attempt to shew that guessing (and therefore often guessing wrong) is a necessary part of the progress of induction'.