The Thinking Horizon Of Mill’s Logical Method On Exploring The Causality

John Stuart Mill’s book A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive, whichwas described as “leaving great impact on the world” mainly embodies his ideologyof seeking causality and has been published for8times since1843in Mill’s life time.Since the beginning of the20th century, people has reflected on a series of moralconsequences which brought by political practice and the market economy. At thesame time, people also started to pay attention to the Scottish Enlightenment thinkingand had more enthusiasm to know more about Mill’s methodology on exploring thecausal relationship of the phenomenon. From the sense of scientific methodology,Mill’s ideology of seeking causality provides a basis for the validity of the method ofscientific induction; from the sense of humanistic values, Mill’s ideology carriespeople’s concern on the development of human’s society. Inductive method dates backto ancient Greece. Mill tried to make rules for the scientific induction which is morecompletely and to let people know the cause and effect of it, which means to providemethods of seeking causal relationship for scientific induction. Scientific inductionnot only has made up for the lack of simple enumeration method, but also hashighlighted the advantages and revealed the inner connection from the causalrelationship of things. Although the conclusion got from scientific induction was stillcontingent, it greatly reduced probability if compared to the simple enumerationmethod. Mill has presented his thought of method of agreement, difference,concomitant variation and residues in the text. On the basis of experimental science,Mill provides some effective methods for people to explore the causal relationshipbetween the natural phenomena. At the same time, he led the methods of the naturalsciences to the thought of social issues and tried to analyze the causal relationshipbetween social phenomenon. Mill’s ideology has compatibility between science andhumanities. In the process of studying the text, it is found that although Mill’sideology of seeking causality was generated in the field of experimental science, itcould be applied to the areas of political, economic, social, historical, and moral field, and broaden the development path of scientific research in these fields. For Mill, it isnot only the first attempt but also a breakthrough. This paper tries to further seekingthe methodological significance for Mill’s ideology both from the perspective ofsciences and humanities and to reveal its intrinsic humane care. Meanwhile, the paperalso tries to do in-depth analysis of the limitations of Mill’s methodology when in theapplication process and to leave a space to think more about how Mill’s ideology canget through out of the difficult situations.