Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A binding or twisting together.
- noun In logic, the binding together of facts by means of a general description or hypothesis which applies to them all.
- noun In psychology, a form of mental connection or association in which the constituent elements, after combination, are as distinct as (or even more distinct than) they were or would be in isolation.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A binding together.
- noun (Logic) That process by which a number of isolated facts are brought under one conception, or summed up in a general proposition, as when Kepler discovered that the various observed positions of the planet Mars were points in an ellipse.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
binding together. - noun logic The formulation of a general hypothesis which seeks to connect two or more facts.
- noun linguistics The co-occurrence of syntactic categories, usually within a sentence.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the connection of isolated facts by a general hypothesis
- noun the state of being joined together
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Mill does not disagree, but argues, contrary to Whewell, that colligation by itself is no test of truth.
John Stuart Mill Wilson, Fred 2007
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This “act of thought” is a process Whewell called “colligation.”
William Whewell Snyder, Laura J. 2006
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Prior even to Franklin D. Roosevelt this entire colligation of ideas had been impaired by three developments in national governmental practice: first, the growth of Presidential initiative in legislation; secondly, the delegation by Congress of legislative powers to the President; thirdly, the delegation in many instances of like powers to so-called independent agencies or commissions, in which are merged in greater or less measure the three powers of government of Montesquieu's postulate.
The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation Annotations of Cases Decided by the Supreme Court of the United States to June 30, 1952 Edward Samuel Corwin 1920
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Scriptural history of the Hebrew patriarchs in Lower Asia; but, as has been explained already, its connection with Scripture rather militated than otherwise against its reception as a complete theory, since the majority of the inquirers who till recently addressed themselves with most earnestness to the colligation of social phenomena, were either influenced by the strongest prejudice against
Physics and Politics, or, Thoughts on the application of the principles of "natural selection" and "inheritance" to political society Walter Bagehot 1851
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Without the previous colligation of detached observations by means of one general conception, we could never have obtained any basis for an induction, except in the case of phenomena of very limited compass.
A System Of Logic, Ratiocinative And Inductive (Vol. 1 of 2) John Stuart Mill 1839
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The assertion that the planets move in ellipses, was but a mode of representing observed facts; it was but a colligation; while the assertion that they are drawn, or tend, towards the sun, was the statement of a new fact, inferred by induction.
A System Of Logic, Ratiocinative And Inductive (Vol. 1 of 2) John Stuart Mill 1839
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Successive expressions for the colligation of observed facts, or, in other words, successive descriptions of a phenomenon as a whole, which has been observed only in parts, may, though conflicting, be all correct as far as they go.
A System Of Logic, Ratiocinative And Inductive (Vol. 1 of 2) John Stuart Mill 1839
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Colligation is not always induction; but induction is always colligation.
A System Of Logic, Ratiocinative And Inductive (Vol. 1 of 2) John Stuart Mill 1839
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Even a simple colligation of inductions already made, without any fresh extension of the inductive inference, is already an advance in that direction.
A System Of Logic, Ratiocinative And Inductive (Vol. 1 of 2) John Stuart Mill 1839
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I only think him mistaken in setting up this kind of operation, which according to the old and received meaning of the term, is not induction at all, as the type of induction generally; and laying down, throughout his work, as principles of induction, the principles of mere colligation.
A System Of Logic, Ratiocinative And Inductive (Vol. 1 of 2) John Stuart Mill 1839
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